ng from a Channel raid. The scooters raced towards the
enemy in a smother of foam. Every quick-firing gun on the German ships
spouted shells at the mysterious white streaks approaching them with the
speed of lightning. So close did these plucky little ships go to their
giant adversaries that the blast of the German guns was felt aboard, but
no shells struck them. Then the line of C.M.B.'s swerved and their
torpedoes were launched at close range. One of the enemy destroyers was
hit and badly damaged, while two others had narrow shaves.

There was no time for German retaliation. For a brief few minutes the
sea around the scooters was ploughed up by the shells from the Hun
artillery, then the four little attacking craft were five miles distant
from the scene of their victory, and presented almost invisible white
specks to the enemy gunners.

At Zeebrugge these craft ran close in under the guns of the shore
fortifications, and covered the approach of the landing parties and
block-ships with a screen of artificial smoke. At Ostend they entered
the harbour under heavy fire and ignited flares to enable the
block-ships to navigate in the darkness. Others, in the same operations,
torpedoed the piers and silenced the guns mounted thereon.

Their exploits savour of old-time sea romance, as, for example, when the
little _Condor_ ran in under the guns of the fortress of Alexandria, or
further back in our naval history, when sail and round shot took the
place of petrol and torpedoes.

For anti-submarine work these wonderfully fast little chasers were used
in small flotillas. They were fitted with short-range wireless sets, and
when the message came stating that a vessel was being attacked in a
certain position, perhaps twenty miles from the coast, a number were
instantly released from the leash, and in a fraction of the time taken
by larger vessels they were on the scene with torpedoes and Lewis guns
for surface attack and depth charges for submerged bombing.

They were commanded, in many instances, by R.N.V.R. officers of the
auxiliary service, and carried two engineers. No crew was necessary, nor
was space available for them. The plucky dash of these vessels into the
harbours of Zeebrugge and Ostend, their subsequent operations on the
Belgian coast, and their losses in the action at the entrance to the
Heligoland Bight in 1918, when they were launched from a big ship, have
earned for them high renown in naval history.

BOOM