The old cruiser ' Vindictive,' laden with concrete, was sunk
on Friday week acmes the entrance to Ostend Harbour, between the piers. The operation begun on St. George's Day, when the canal entrance at Zeebrugge was blocked, was thus completed. The ` Sirius' and ' Brilliant' missed their way on that occasion and were sunk prematurely, because the enemy had removed the buoy marking the channel into Ostend. This time the Navy made no mistake. The enemy were taken by surprise. Under cover of a heavy bombardment from monitors and a smoke-screen, to which a sea-fog added itself uninvited, the ' Vindictive' steamed between the piers before the German gunners sighted her. Commander Godeal, who was in charge, was killed. Lieutenant Crutehley, succeeding to the command, sank the ship across the channel, and made his way back with most of the officers and crew in two motor- boats. As the ` Vindictive ' is three hundred and twenty feet long and lies diagonally across the harbour entrance, Ostend will not be of much value to the enemy for some time to come. It is highly significant and encouraging that the German Admiralty should have had to reassure its public by affirming, first, that the ` Vin- dictive' did not carry cement, and, secondly, that she was sunk by the German batteries and not by her crew. When the German Admiralty has to resort to deliberate lying, we may know that it has suffered a bad reverse, and that the German public is nervous.
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