312 



DISCOVIiHY 



The Raid on the Bruges 

 — Ostend Canal in 1798 



By C. S. S. Higham, M.A. 



Lecturer in Colonial IJislory in the Universily o/ Manchester 



The Channel ports have long played a great part in 

 the strategy of campaigns, and during the recent war 

 the importance of controlling them was well illustrated ; 

 a very similar situation arose during the wars of the 

 French Revolution, and a successful attempt was 

 made to put the Bruges-Ostend Canal out of action. 

 The low-lying nature of the country facilitates the 

 making of such waterways, and the whole of Flanders 

 is one network of canals which are of great importance 

 for peaceful commerce, and doubly so for war. The 

 fact is that this huge system makes the work of a 

 blockading squadron a much more difficult task, and 

 greatly increases the effective mouth of the Scheldt. 

 Small craft can come by the canals from Antwerp or 

 other ports to Bruges, and so to sea, and thus escape 

 the seaward patrol. 



When the ports were raided in 1918 there were two 

 main points of attack. Zeebrugge was the more impor- 

 tant, for it was connected with Bruges by a ship canal, 

 some twenty-six feet deep, which had been completed 

 only a few years before the war, while Ostend was 

 joined to Bruges by an older canal, some fourteen feet 

 deep and thirteen miles long. Thus Bruges had 

 become a great harbour for submarines and small 

 craft, which were built at Antwerp or other places, 

 and sent in parts to Bruges by canal or rail ; thence 

 they were able to sally out by Ostend or Zeebrugge 

 and take part in the intensive submarine campaign. 

 Since the mouth of the Scheldt was closed by the 

 neutrality of Holland, the problem was to seal the 

 two entrances to the harbour of Bruges. In 1798 

 the problem was very similar : four years earlier the 

 armies of the French Republic had succeeded in ex- 

 pelling the Allies from Belgium, or the Austrian Nether- 

 lands, as they then were, and had also captured Holland. 

 Thus the Scheldt as well as Ostend, with its recently 

 constructed canal from Bruges, were both in their 

 hands, and news kept trickling through to us that the 

 tnemy were building vessels at Flushing and elsewhere, 

 which were to assemble at Bruges for an invasion of 

 England. 



The plan of destroying the canal was conceived, and 

 its details worked out by an energetic and restless 

 sailor, Sir Home Popham, then a Captain in the Royal 

 Navy. Popham was naturally interested in the 

 problem, for he had served with the British troops in 



Flanders during the recent campaign, and had been 

 specially recommended for promotion by the Duke of 

 York, for his able handling of the Inland Water Trans- 

 ])ort. Previously, too, he had become well acquainted 

 with the port of Ostend. since for several years he had 

 traded thence to the East Indies under the flag of 

 .•\ustria. Here, then, was a man who appreciated the 

 importance to the French armies of the canal system 

 of Flanders, and who realised the threat to England 

 contained in the new Bruges-Ostend canal. 



Popham 's plans were ably seconded by General Sir 

 Charles Grey, the father of the famous statesman who 

 passed the Reform Bill, and at that time in command 

 of the Southern district with his headquarters near 

 Canterbury. Grey was a keen and daring soldier who 

 had seen service in the War of American Independence : 

 later, in 1793, he sailed with Jervis in an e.xpedition 

 against the French possessions in the West Indies, and 

 distinguished himself by the perfect co-operation he 

 secured between army and navy when a joint attack 

 was carried out on Martinique. He now urged 

 Popham's plans upon Dundas, Pitt's Secretary of 

 State, and gained his permission to prepare a secret 

 expedition. Popham had drawn up a careful 

 memorandum on the subject : he aimed at blowing up 

 the canal gates at Saas, a mile above Ostend, by a 

 combined military and naval raid. " I would have all 

 the vessels anchor in their stations in the night," he 

 WTOte, " and disembark their Troops at high water, by 

 which means the detachment for Saas will be there and 

 have their Petards fixed by half ebb, which is the 

 proper time to burst the Gates, as the water will then 

 have an amazing fall, and will render it impossible for 

 any boat to cross the Harbor, indeed I imagine every- 

 thing there will be torn away and carried to sea by so 

 great a body of water coming down so suddenly, a 

 quantity of silt and mud will in course also be brought 

 down, wliich may tend to stop up the Harbor, especially 

 if a vessel was sunk there at low water. ' ' Tliis sugges- 

 tion of sinking a ship in the harbour mouth is an 

 interesting forecast of the Vindictive, but it went no 

 further at the moment. Popham also submitted a 

 diagram to show how he proposed to employ his ships, 

 and the covering force of troops who were to screen the 

 demolition party. 



Meanwhile Grey was choosing his men and assemb- 

 hng them at Margate with all secrecy. " The nth 

 Regiment I have always meant to embark." he wrote, 

 "they being a very good corps, and perhaps detach- 

 ments from the 4gth and 23rd, not wisliing to embark 

 them, but to make up the number of Troops wanted 

 from the Flank companies ; my reason for this is, the 

 4gth are composed of raw recruits, 70 joined them on 

 their march to Margate, and the 23rd have a great 

 many Dutchmen in the Regt. which I do not think 



