and it was now impossible to get any men off the beach. Coote found his communication with Popham's ships cut off, and on his own initiative attempted to send some boats of troops off to the ships. These boats quickly filled with water as they made way and the men on board only narrowly avoided being killed. Seeing that further attempts to get to sea were hopeless and expecting that the weather would moderate on the following day, Coote formed a position on the sandbanks, facing inland. There the engineers hastily constructed breastworks and the available field guns and howitzers were brought up in defensive positions. The force stayed at the ready in their positions through the following day and night, with the weather conditions getting steadily worse. News of the attack had since reached the surrounding settlements, and soldiers had been formed together from the garrisons at Ghent, Bruges, and Dunkirk to repulse the British. At around 4 a.m. on 20 May these troops came up with Coote's force on the beach, organised into two columns directly opposing the British with other units on the flanks. Popham observed the French attack from his ships but the sea state meant that he was still unable to do anything to assist Coote. The French force pushed the British flanks in over a period of two hours of fighting, during which time Coote himself was badly injured while trying to rally the 11th. The decision was then made to capitulate, before which the Royal Artillery pushed its guns into the sea to stop them from being captured. Coote's force lost 163 men killed and wounded, with 1,134 men subsequently captured. Aftermath When it was clear the Coote had surrendered Popham weighed anchor and moved out to sea. Plans had been made to follow up the Ostend operation with similar attacks on the Scheldt and at Flushing, but these did not take place. Despite the ignominious end to Coote's force, the goal of the operation had been achieved. Lord Buckingham wrote to the Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville that he was "extremely happy in the success of your very important and very well digested attempt upon Ostend", calling it a "complete success". Despite the failure to rescue Coote's force, naval historian Sir Julian Corbett argues that as the destruction of the canal gates had the impact they had intended, the expedition was "a thoroughly