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[Page 5]
The Sydney gave her two more broadsides as she passed her stern & then stood off at once to hunt down the collier. It was just 11.20 am & took fifty minutes to overhaul the collier. A gun was fire across her bows & she stopped. She turned out to be a British collier -The Buresk - captured & manned chiefly with Chinese. A German prize crew of 16 was found on her. A party from the Sydney which boarded her found her already sinking. The valves in the ship's bottom had been opened & destroyed so as to prevent checking the inrush of water. This was a pity as with the extra ship a great deal more comfort could be given to the Emden's wounded. As it was it took till 4 pm to transfer the collier's crew to the Sydney who, on leaving, fired several shots into the collier to make certain of her fate. The Sydney then returned to the Emden. Although high and dry her colours were still flying. For twenty minutes the Sydney steamed up and down past her stern signalling to her to surrender but the Emden neither hoisted a white flag nor hauled her ensign down. Accordingly two more broadsides were fired into her already shapeless mass. Then at last a white flag slowly appeared and the ensign was lowered. It was now towards evening & the tropical night falls quickly & the Sydney had not been able to visit the Wireless Station on direction Island, 15 miles to the south so she immediately left for there. A boat was sent off to the Emden, manned by the German crew taken off the collier with a message that the Sydney would return & assist them in the morning. As a matter of fact it was even then too late to prevent the escape of the landing party from the settlement. Between North Keeling and Cocos a man was found swimming in the water. It was necessary to rescue him & the result was that by the time the Sydney had reached the Homestead it was night time & would have been dangerous to land. It was not known but that some other cruiser of the enemy might turn up & the Sydney had no desire to be caught napping. She stood off the island till daybreak & then learned that the wireless & cable stations had been damaged & that the landing party of about 40 in all with three boats and four maxim guns had left in their schooner about half an hour after the Sydney arrived on the previous night & had not been heard of since. At 10 am the Sydney was able to return to the Emden with Cocos island doctor & other helpers, The condition of the Emden's people was pitiable. No one could describe nor even wish to describe the state of affairs on the cruiser herself. The greater part of the ship was a mass of bursted and tangled steel. It was most difficult to get about her. The survivors were in the forecastle where a fire had started & burnt itself out. There was not a drop of water on the ship and only a few biscuits. The survivors & wounded had had nothing to eat since the start of the action the previous day. Heavy seas had made it impossible to land. In spite of this about 20 had either been washed up or carried ashore but being wounded some had been drowned. The most experienced of her doctors had his leg broken trying to reach the shore & it is said he drank salt water & died the previous evening. There was no fresh water on the island, which had been uninhabited for 10 years. For the whole of the second day the Sydney worked at bringing off the wounded. They had taken all those off the ship by 5 pm. But there were still some 20 on the island, badly wounded when darkness fell before their rescue could begin. Work started in the grey of the next morning. The wounded were brought down to the shore on stretchers, taken off in a