Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-25
UUl(S
LIKE GIBRALTAR
Allies Astounded That Port
So Defended Could Have
Been Blocked
HISTORIC WRECKS SEEN
Retiring Germans Failed to
Destroy Big Lock Gate and
Electric Works
HISTORIC WRECKS SEEN
By WALTER DURANTY
Special Cable 10 Evening Public Ledger

Copyri0ht. 1918, by Nctr York Times Co.
Bruges. oct. 20 tBy Courier to Dun
kirk.
visited Zeebrugge yesterday. the
scene of one Of the most audacious
exploits in the wars history. Along
the coast from Blankenbrueh the SAND
) hills spreading the road from the beach
were honeycombed with battery posi-
tions succeeding one another absolutely
without interval. There must have been
hundreds Of guns varying from six to
twelve inch and tons OF big shells
still left by the Germans Everywhere
one could see long muzzles turned sea-
ward.
As Zeebrugge drew near the gun en-
ated by gaping craters fifty feet across.
made by aerial toipedoes or projectiles
from the largest English naval cannon.
The port of Zeebrugge made striking
picture in the bright. midday sunshine.
Just at the right of the little group
Of hotels and Villas that formed the
town begins the ong mole entrance
commanded by "a battery of six-inch
guns still intact--but after running out
hundred yards into the sea it curves
northward for half a mile parallel with
the shore. thus making sheltered har-
Dor in front Of the mouth Of the Bruges
Canal. which enters the sea between two
long piers some six hundred yards north
Of the town.
Sunken ships in HarbOr
The tide was low and the wrecks
of sunlen ships stood high out of the
water. Close against the mole and
nearly at the end was the Brussels and
beyond il unknown vessels. Nearer the
mans. Then exactly off the end of
the canal was the wreck Of the Thetis.
the old British warship. which was sunk
in the famous attack. Beyond the stu
smoldering timbers of the burned per
] could distinguish other British ships
the Iph!genia and the Intrepid. long
battered masses OF twisted. rusty iron
Suddenly there came the rat-a-,at OF
machine-guns from fotilla OF motor
launches GROUPED off the end OF the
mole and II moment later an enormous
column u mud and water rose a hun
d,..d fe N he air followed by an ear
splittn explosion az the bullets nred
one of the many mines that had formed
a barrage At the northern end of the
harbor.
/ walked as far as possible along the
mole. After twenty-five yards The soiid
concrete wall. twenty feet high and
thirty feet across. gave way 10 the
timbers of wooden pier work. under
which III. tide swept right up the
ilarbor There was forty-yard gap
in ine mote. torn by the explosion of
British submarine crammed TO the
haic.rS with lr.niiroi oluoi and driven
headlong against the breakwater on the
night Of the sttack. The inhabitants
of Bruges. twelve miles away, were
startled by that terrific blast. which
dwarfed the roar of the bombardment
the heaviest in their experience
The Germans soon bridscd the gap
with a pier solid enough t<bear rail-
road. but The rush of water through il
was steadily sitting up the harbor. and
rendered II almost useless in rough
weather. Just where the further end
of the pier rejoins the stonework the
timbers had been dynamited by the
Germans and five-yard hole. over
which dropped broken rails. barred
further progress.
Hoists Flag on Thetis
! made my way across the shore to
the entrance of the canal a short dis
lance from the wreck of the Thetis. AT
the same moment a party from one of
the motor launches boarded the wreck in
n small boat and hoisted the white en-
sign Of the royal navy over the glorious
ruin. Their commander sent boat for
me and I scrambled aboard. He proved
TO be the captain 'who conducted The
operations of the motor launches of the
fiotilla I'm the attack on Ostend and was
now engaged in destroying mines.
whereof more had been located. but