The sixty-man canoe party reached the island by way of the "Mad Whore‘s Dream." When they attempted to launch their craft into the main river channel, however, they discovered that there was an inch of ice on the surface - a fact that had been reported at 5 A.M. by the Algonquin Regiment, who were monitoring river conditions. The party was forced to haul their canoes over this crust of ice to reach open water and by the time they embarked and moved downstream both the men and their weapons were soaked.
Unfortunately, the canoeists‘ troubles were just beginning. The ice along the north bank of the island forced them to move farther out into the main channel of the Maas where the smoke was less thick, and as they paddled their fragile craft furiously toward the harbour they came under accurate fire from the north bank of the river. Matters were not helped when the wind began to shift, thinning out their smoke cover even more. Lieutenant Lloyd Grose of the Argylls, whose platoon was on the eastern spit of the Veer to hold a "firm base" for the sappers at the bridge, watched horrified through windows in the smoke screen as the men in the canoes were "picked off by the machine guns from the far side of the river." Several of the craft were sunk and the party was forced to land on the north side of the Veer near where Lambert‘s A Company had reached the island. They were now about halfway to their objective but only about fifteen were still on their feet. As soon as they moved on top of the dyke, they came under heavy fire from German machine guns firing along fixed lines through the smoke. When they tried to return this fire, the canoeists discovered that their weapons, thoroughly soaked during their short but perilous voyage, were frozen solid and would not work. The survivors withdrew to the mainland.