“We call to account,” wrote one French member of parliament in his paper, “those who gave arms to the newts that they could use against people who put bombs in their paws so that they could kill French villagers and children as they play who gave these monstrosities from the sea the most modern torpedoes so that they could sink French shipping whenever they want. MYSTERIOUS EVENTS off the coast of Normandy The official report, issued that same night, announced that the “ageing cruiser, the Jules Flambeau, which was anyway to be withdrawn from service within a few weeks from now, hit rocks while sailing by night and, with its boiler exploding, sank”, but the press were not so easily satisfied while the government influenced press maintained that the ship had hit a recently laid German mine, the opposition and foreign press carried headlines such as:
It was clear that the cruiser was sinking within a quarter of an hour motor boats had come out from the nearby ports to offer help but they were not needed apart from three men killed in the explosion itself the whole crew was saved and the Jules Flambeau went down five minutes later, its captain being the last to leave the ship with the memorable words, “There’s nothing we can do”.
This beautiful spectacle was watched by a large number of people on the shore suddenly there was a hissing noise and an enormous column of water rose at the bow of the ship it keeled over and there was a terrible explosion. The Jules Flambeau dropped anchor a mile and a half from the bay of Basse Coutances when night came, in order to create a stronger impression, the captain order coloured rockets to be set off.
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
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