- Author
- Loxton, Bruce, Commodore, RAN Rtd
- Subjects
- Ship histories and stories, History - WW1, WWI operations
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 1998 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Many years later when lecturing officers at a Staff College, Crutchley recalled how they:
“turned to the westward parallel to the shore and searched for the entrance – we did not find it and so reversed our course and again failed to find it so turned back again – all this time it was very hard to see anything, owing to the fog and smoke – there was plenty of light from star shell but one could see no more than 300 yards at the most. This time we were lucky, and suddenly saw the entrance about 1 cable (200 yards) on our port beam. At the same time the enemy saw us clearly, and we came in for a bad time while turning and entering, and eventually we grounded between the piers at an angle of about 40 degrees to the eastern pier and could not move her anymore. I think she was ashore because she was sinking due to the gunfire. There was nothing for it but to abandon and blow her up. This was done and again the M.L.’s got us away.“
That is essentially what happened but he made it sound all too easy, almost routine. It was anything but routine as Keyes showed in his Memoires and in his Dispatches covering the operation against Zeebrugge and Ostend dated May 9th and June 15th. The Admiral described VINDICTIVE’S, entry into the channel leading to Ostend Harbour in the following terms:
“The guns found her at once. She was hit every few seconds after she entered – The machine gun on the end of the western pier had been put out of action by the motor boat’s torpedo but from other machine guns at the inshore ends of the piers, from a position on the front and from other machine guns apparently firing over the eastern pier, there converged upon her a hail of lead. The after control was demolished by a shell which killed all its occupants. Upper and lower bridges were swept by bullets and Commander Godsal RN ordered his officers to go into the conning tower. They observed through the observation slit in the steel (almost 9 inches thick) wall of the conning tower that the eastern pier was breached some 200 yards from its seaward end. Immediately after passing that breach in the pier Commander Godsal left the conning tower and went out on deck, the better to watch the ship’s movements. He chose his position (for ramming the pier), and called in through the slit of the conning tower his order to starboard the helm (thus swinging the ship to port) towards the eastern pier. The VINDICTIVE responded: she laid her battered nose to the eastern pier, and prepared to swing her 320 feet of length across the channel.“
Keyes wrote in his dispatch that it had been Godsal’s intention to ram the western or right hand pier to make use of the tidal stream that was then setting to the eastward along the coast. Once aground forward VINDICTIVE stern would then have been swung across the channel. Apparently because he found himself too close to the western pier to turn towards it, he had no alternative but to turn the other way towards the eastern pier. The most likely cause for this misfortune, i.e. the closeness of the right hand pier, was the delayed sighting of the harbour entrance which caused the turn into the channel to be made later than planned. The situation was exacerbated by the damage that the port propeller had suffered alongside the mole at Zeebrugge which reduced the effect of putting the port engine full astern in an attempt to swing the stern against the current.
To return to Keyes’ Memoirs:
“It was at that moment that a shell struck the conning tower. Lieutenant Sir John Alleyne RN (who was navigating) and Lieutenant VAC Crutchley RN were still within; Commander Godsal was close to the tower outside. Lieutenant Alleyne was stunned by the explosion; Lieutenant Crutchley shouted through the slit to the Commander and, receiving no answer, rang the port engine full speed astern to help in swinging the ship (so that she lay right across the channel). By this time she was lying at an angle of about 40 degrees to the pier and seemed to be hard and fast, so that it was impossible to bring her further around. After working the engines for some minutes to no effect, Lieutenant Crutchley gave the order to clear the engine room and abandon ship. Engineer Lieutenant Commander William Albury RN who was the last to leave the engine room blew the main charges. Lieutenant Crutchley blew the auxiliary charges in the forward 6 inch magazine from the conning tower. Those on board felt the old ship shrug as the explosive tore the bottom plates and the bulkheads from her. She sank about six feet and lay upon the bottom of the channel. Her work was done.“
But Crutchley still had more to do. Before he personally abandoned VINDICTIVE he searched her with the aid of a torch under heavy fire for other survivors and particularly for Godsal with whom he had served in CENTURION for almost five years. He found no trace of him and indeed found no other survivors so he joined the Engineer Officer, Bury, and 37 men in Motor Launch 254 which had followed VINDICTIVE into harbour and had secured alongside. Alleyne, who had been taken unconscious from the conning tower, later recovered consciousness, was shot as he was abandoning ship, fell into the sea and, with two other seriously wounded survivors, clung to an upturned dinghy. They were rescued by ML 276 who had gone alongside VINDICTIVE as 254 cast off. She remained alongside under very heavy fire from the shore whilst a final search was made for survivors. None having been found, she cast off and made good her escape having been hit no less than 55 times. For their efforts both ML Captains were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross.