But, with an eager courage no Viking
could have beaten, and with a trained skill no Viking could have
equalled, every seaman and Marine in that heroic party who was not
killed or disabled pressed on till the flaming battery was silenced.
Then the survivors swarmed back with all the wounded they could find,
climbed over the few broken gangways still holding together, and turned
to the work of getting clear. At last the _Vindictive_, though a mere
mangled wreck, got off and limped home victorious with all that was
left of the equally daring flotilla of small craft.
Zeebrugge was the bigger base on the Belgian coast. But Ostend
remained; and both were connected by canals with Bruges, which stood
several miles inland. The whole formed a triple base shaped like the
letter V, with Bruges at the bottom, Zeebrugge (sea-Bruges) to the
right, and Ostend to the left. To close only Zeebrugge was to leave
the back door open. So Ostend was raided, and smashed later on, the
old _Vindictive_, now past her fighting days, being sunk full of
concrete.
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