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82 the Ambrose Channel. They were surrounded by a cordon of destroyers. Had any fisherman's boat been allowed to pass the destroyers (which it was not), it would have seen that all of the boats on the transports were loaded with troops and swung outboard ready for lowering. The first boats to reach the water contained detachments of expert linemen and engineers of the German Imperial Army. They were towed by a ship's launch to the deserted beach, fronting the Brighton Beach Hotel, and, mounting their bicycles, they scattered and headed for the country lying back of Coney Island and the various beach resorts. The linemen cut all the telegraph and telephone lines leading to Brooklyn and New York; the engineers removed a rail from every trolley and elevated track leading to the city. Part of this detachment covered the highways leading from the Beach