THE BRITISH SEA DOG.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 929, 2 May 1918, Page 6

THE BRITISH SEA DOG.

life Bite as Sharp as Ever.

in the best traditions of the British Navy is the story of the recent :'cutting out" or, rather, we should say, "bottling-up" r?.id at Zeebrugge and Ostend. Both commanders and men displayed that splendid daring and" gallantry, collective and individual by which the British Navy earned world-wide fame—and fear—in the dayfs of old. The sapient dunderheads who have gone about—and the tribe-is .represented in Wellington— asking "What is the Navy doing?" have now got their answer. The Navy cannot achieve the impossible and under the special conditions of modern warfare the difficulties of its task have been increased a thousand-fold. But the Zeebrugge-Ostend affair has shown that the old spirit is still there, the spirit which regards difficulties and dangers with a gay nonchalance and sangfroid which "has . nothing ~ o.f theatrical about it, but which is begotten of a well-founded confidence in British initiative and British pluck. «• * ■ .■ ■*■ , . . * His would be a poor soul : indeed which did not thrill with pride over the account of the raid and of the desperate valour and calm disregard for death which was displayed by the captain and men of the Vindictive and her sisters in the fray. Master Fritz's nerves have received a severe shock, and the moral\effect of the raid cannot be over estimated. That the clever young inventor of the artificial foj2;, Lieut. Brock (a son, by the way, of the famous fireworks manufacturer, whose djsplays at the Crystal Palace so many New Zealanders have witnessed when visiting London) should have been killed in the raid, 1 is greatly -to be deplored. His name should be gratefully remembered and held in permanent honour by every good Briton. ■*■■.;;. ./ * ■ . * ' Meanwhile there is no appearance of the German High Sea Fleet to attempt vengeance , for the very effective blow dealt the enemy by this raid, and the "Lord High Admiral of the Atlantic" has been noticeably reticent over the affair. He is probably pondering, and that very seriously, over the possibility of "artificial fogs' ' being employed some day to veil attacks upon ''hornets' nests" far more formidable than Zeebrugge. Even, Kiel and ■Wilhelmshav&n may not always be safe and sure havens for the Hun fleets to hide in. The Zeebrugge raid is of very happy augury for the success of other and greater raids to come. ,;. .;