Thetis now came under extremely heavy fire both from the direction of the Mole and from shore batteries near the canal. Her six-inch gun on the forecastle was replying to the shore batteries. She appeared to have grounded about three hundred yards from the canal entrance. Thetis now appeared to be settling down. All chances of struggling into the canal entrance appeared to be hopeless. She had been hit again and again and was on fire in several places. She had taken the brunt of the firing whilst her two consorts were following comparatively undamaged. She could do little more now than assist Intrepid and Iphigenia to reach their objectives. Prearranged signals, therefore, were made to these other two ships guiding them to the canal. It must be remembered that it was now half an hour after midnight. Intrepid and Iphigenia, in that order, passed close to Thetis. Thanks to the latter's signals they were able to locate the entrance piers; the further movements of those two vessels will be described in a moment.
As soon as Iphigenia was clear Captain Sneyd in Thetis ordered the artificial smoke to be turned on, and had almost decided to abandon ship when Engineer Lieutenant-Commander Boddie succeeded in getting the starboard engine to go ahead.
The ship moved slowly forward for a short distance, but was apparently dragging her stern along the bottom. As far as could be seen she was not only in the dredged channel leading to the canal, but was lying across it. The ship was undoubtedly in a sinking condition, so her captain decided to blow the bottom out of her in accordance with the Plan.
Sinking the Blockships
The blockships had each been fitted with explosive charges inside the bottom of the ship. These charges had been connected electrically to a firing arrangement which could be operated from alternative positions in the ship. The petty officer in charge of the foremost firing keys had been killed and they could not be found owing to the fumes from bursting shell and those from the artificial smoke. The firing keys at the other end of the ship were, therefore, pressed after the crew had been ordered on deck. The charges immediately exploded. The bottom of the ship was blown out; in a few moments the vessel had sunk. The upper deck was now just under water. The ship's company abandoned the ship, which was still under incessant fire, in the only remaining boat and pulled away to the northward, where M.L. 526, which had followed the blockships, picked them up. The Thetis' boat was the cutter. It had been badly holed by shell fire and was crowded to its full capacity. Some of the crew were wounded; Sneyd and his second-in-command had been wounded and gassed. The proceedings of M.L. 526, which also rescued some of the crew from another blockship, will be described later.
Intrepid had experienced a certain amount of shell fire when approaching the Mole, having apparently passed through an area which was being barraged by the enemy. She passed the Mole without difficulty and navigated between the obstruction booms. The sinking of the southernmost barge and the tearing away of the entanglement nets by Thetis, with the resultant widening of the unobstructed channel, had greatly reduced the chance of Intrepid getting into trouble at this point. During the final run to the canal she had escaped serious damage from gun-fire because nearly all the German guns were concentrating either on Thetis or on the forces attacking the Mole. Having located the entrance pier, passing close to Thetis en route, Intrepid entered the canal and proceeded up the latter until just inland of the coast-line. Having reached the exact position as signed to her, Lieutenant Bonham-Carter at once commenced to turn his ship across the channel. As soon as he found she could be turned no further—it must be remembered that the navigable channel at that position was exceedingly narrow—he decided to blow the bottom out of the ship. The crew had been previously ordered to take to the boats, but Engineer Sub-Lieutenant Meikle and three ratings had not been able to leave the engine-room when the charges exploded. Fortunately these four individuals escaped destruction. The ship sank immediately.
THE THREE BLOCKSHIPS SHORTLY AFTER THE ATTACK.
INTREPID AND IPHIGENIA.
The former the nearer to the camera