Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 52
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[Page 52]
Lloyds and the Indian Government had each offered five pounds per man for the ship which caught her a sum a promise which by the way was never fulfilled.
Since the action one has often been asked by people who do not know how it was that the Emden ever hit the Sydney at all seeing that the Sydney was the bigger ship and had the bigger guns. Various rumours flew about that the Sydney's Captain had been courtmartialled for recklessness and for risking needlessly the lives of his men. The general public one fears, is not always well informed on naval tactics, and the best answer to such baseless statements is the honour conferred on Captain Glossop by the King acting on the advice of Admiralty experts who presumably knew their job.
The German guns, tho' smaller, had almost as great a range as the Sydney's, tho' naturally their hitting power was less, and it was next to impossible to keep out of range and still destroy the enemy. Anyone who quarrels with a total bag of four hundred Huns with at a loss of four lives is a difficult person to please.
In any case the Nelson tradition that no Captain can commit any great fault in laying his ship alongside the enemy, though not literally applicable today, is nevertheless still in the blood of our present day first Captains.
The instinct in a fighting service which gives the desire to get to close grips with the enemy is not one which should lightly be sought to be destroyed.