This duty was magnificently carried out.  Without the assistance of the Gloucester very few of the storming parties from the Vindictive could have landed, or could have re-embarked.

The landing from the Iris was made under even more trying circumstances.  She rolled heavily in the sea, which rendered the use of the scaling ladders very difficult.  But at this time, according to calculations, enough men had been landed to complete the work.

The fighting on the Mole became hand-to-hand.

CHAPTER IX

THE BATTLE CONTINUES

A shell suddenly exploded among the Vindictive’s foremost 7.5-inch howitzer’s marine crew.  Many were killed or wounded.  A naval crew from a 6-inch gun took their places and were almost annihilated.

At this time the Vindictive was being hit every few seconds, chiefly in the upper works, from which the splinters caused many casualties.  It was difficult for the British to locate the guns which were doing the most damage, but Jack, from the Brigadier, with men posted in the fortop of the vessel, kept up a continuous fire with pompoms and Lewis machine-guns, changing rapidly from one target to another in an attempt to destroy the guns that were raking the Vindictive fore and aft.

Two heavy shells struck the foretop of the Brigadier almost simultaneously.  Half a dozen men were killed.  A score of others were wounded.

To return for a moment to Frank and his men.

The attack on the Mole had been designed to be carried out by a storming force to prepare the way for, and afterward to cover and protect, the operations of a second force, which was to carry out the actual work of destruction.  The storming force, which had embarked in the Vindictive, was now reinforced by a hundred British tars from the Brigadier, headed by Frank, and additional sailors from the Iris and Gloucester.

For the first time it was now ascertained that the Vindictive, in anchoring off the Mole, had over-run her station and was berthed some four hundred yards farther to the westward than had been intended.

It had been realized beforehand that the Vindictive might not exactly reach the exact position mapped out, but the fact that the landing was carried out in an unexpected place, combined with the heavy losses already sustained by the vessel, seriously disorganized the attacking force.  The intention had been to land the storming parties right on top of the 4 1-inch guns in position on the seaward end of the Mole, the silencing of which was of the first importance, as they menaced the approach of the block ships.

The leading block ship had been timed to pass the lighthouse twenty-five minutes after the Vindictive came alongside.  This period of time proved insufficient to organize and carry through an attack against the enemy on the seaward end of the Mole, the enemy, it developed, being able to bring heavy machine-gun fire to bear on the attacking forces.  As a result the block ships, when they approached, came under an unexpected fire from the light guns on the Mole extension, though the 4.1-inch batteries on the Mole had remained silent.