The navy eternal, which is the navy-that-floats, the navy-that-flies and the navy-under-the-sea . , andsubmarines proceed instantly and rendezvousin execution oJ previous orders.^ The echoes 288 THE SPIRIT OF THE FLEET broke back from the quiet hills and diedaway. Gee ! muttered an irrepressible Ameri-can ship. Hold tight, Emma ! were off I Gate I yelped the destroyers, standby the gates I and presently they spedforth to meet the dawn and their grinding sound of cables crawlingthrough the hawsepipes as the squadi^onsshortened in filled the harbour. The darkwater eddied and swirled
The navy eternal, which is the navy-that-floats, the navy-that-flies and the navy-under-the-sea . , andsubmarines proceed instantly and rendezvousin execution oJ previous orders.^ The echoes 288 THE SPIRIT OF THE FLEET broke back from the quiet hills and diedaway. Gee ! muttered an irrepressible Ameri-can ship. Hold tight, Emma ! were off I Gate I yelped the destroyers, standby the gates I and presently they spedforth to meet the dawn and their grinding sound of cables crawlingthrough the hawsepipes as the squadi^onsshortened in filled the harbour. The darkwater eddied and swirled as each ship triedher engines; then one by one from the flag-ships of squadrons came the deep-toned Ready, aye, ready ! Each time, hke the chanted responses toa litany, the hospital ships echoed God gowith you! So the last hour of night passed. Outside, as the dawn was paling in the sky,the night patrols encountered the van of thebattle fleet forming up across the waste ofgrey waters beneath its pall of smoke. St. George! rang the challenge. Inone great breath came the fleets reply : England!. CHAPTER XIVTHE EPIC OF ST. GEORGES DAY, 1918 ... Let a plain statement suflSce.—.Rudyard Kipling. It may be well to emphasise at the outsetthat the forces wliich participated in theraids on Ostend and Zeebrugge on the nightof April 22nd-23rd, did not set out withthe mere intention of giving the world anexhibition of gallantry and dash—a sort ofgrim Naval and Mihtary Tournament forthe benefit of newspaper readers. The enter-prise had three clearly defined mihtary ob-jectives : the first of which was the blockingof the Bruges ship canal at its entrance intothe sea at Zeebrugge; the second, thebottling up of Ostend haibour from the sea;and thirdly, the infliction of the maximumdamage possible in the time upon the enemy 19 289 290 ST. GEORGES DAY, 1918 in occupation of these two ports. Thecasualties, considering the desperate natureof the undertaking, were hght and scarcelyto be compared
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