Guns and machine-guns along the
Mole and batteries ashore woke to life, and it was in a gale of shelling
that _Vindictive_ laid her nose against the thirty-foot high concrete
side of the Mole, let go an anchor, and signed to _Daffodil_ to shove
her stern in. _Iris_ went ahead and endeavored to get alongside
likewise.
[Sidenote: Captain Carpenter in the flame-thrower hut.]
The fire, from the account of everybody concerned, was intense. While
ships plunged and rolled beside the Mole in an unexpected send of sea,
_Vindictive_ with her greater draught jarring against the foundation of
the Mole with every plunge, they were swept diagonally by machine-gun
fire from both ends of the Mole and by heavy batteries ashore. Commander
A.F.B. Carpenter (now Captain) conned _Vindictive_ from her open bridge
till her stern was laid in, when he took up his position in the
flame-thrower hut on the port side. It is to this hut that reference has
already been made; it is marvellous that any occupant of it should have
survived a minute, so riddled and shattered is it. Officers of _Iris_,
which was in trouble ahead of _Vindictive_, describe Captain Carpenter
as "handling her like a picket-boat."
[Sidenote: The _Vindictive's_ false high deck and gangways.]
_Vindictive_ was fitted along the port side with a high false deck,
whence ran the eighteen brows, or gangways, by which the storming and
demolition parties were to land. The men were gathered in readiness on
the main and lower decks, while Colonel Elliot, who was to lead the
Marines, waited on the false deck just abaft the bridge, and Captain
H.
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