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[Page 10]
POINTS IN THE FIGHT
THE "EMDEN" SURPRISED.
It is now known pretty well definitely that the "EMDEN" was taken completely by surprise by the presence of the British cruiser near Cocos Island. She had arranged to meet a collier there and coaling was ordered to begin at 1 o'clock on the day on which the fight took place. When first the "SYDNEY"s smoke appeared on the horizon she was apparently taken for the British Cruiser "NEWCASTLE"; when it was seen that she carried 6" guns only and no 4" ones it was supposed that she was the "YARMOUTH". It was not known that she was the "SYDNEY" until she actually revisited the "EMDEN" after the fight. It is believed that the "EMDEN" was anchored when the "Sydney" first saw her smoke. She had arranged to meet her collier and coaling was ordered to begin at 1 o'clock.
By some curious coincidence it is said that the "SYDNEY" has actually arranged the imitation sea fight which a British ship goes through twice in every week for this very morning. Something had interfered with the ordinary Friday practice and it had been arranged to practice a rather more realistic sea fight than usual on Monday morning. The time was fixed for half past nine. The Captain had entered in the night order book on Sunday night : "I consider this to be the most important night of the voyage"; and it is said that he and the other Officers in discussing this had agreed, half in fun, that, if the "SYDNEY" were to meet the "EMDEN", the time they would wish it to happen would be on Monday morning at 9.30. As things turned out the first shot in the action was fired exactly ten minutes before.
It is uncertain whether the "SYDNEY" is the first cruiser has sighted in the course of her long wanderings. It is said that she believed she sighted a British cruiser on one previous occasion. Whether this is So or not probably the Admiralty alone knows.
THE "SYDNEY"S DAMAGE.
There is a great deal that will never be known about the history of the fight between the "EMDEN" and the "SYDNEY" simply because in the midst of a sea fight each man is so engrossed in his own special business that he has no time to notice anything else. The "SYDNEY" was hit, as far as can be made out, about 14 or 15 times - there are the marks of about four shots through her sides, one big hole in her forecastle deck, 3 or 4 which burst in various parts of the ship's upper works, one which clipped through the rigging, another through a funnel, another which cut neatly through two of the steam pipes in front of a funnel, and 3 or 4 others which hit the side or grooved the deck. And yet scarcely anyone during the action seems to have known that the ship was hit at all except by the one shot or perhaps two which happened to pass in his immediate neighbourhood. It is extraordinary how close some of the "EMDEN"s 4" shells passed without doing any damage. One of them scored the whole length of a plate a few inches of at least 3 or 4 men without injuring any of them. Another passed over the shoulder of the Gunnery Lieutenant so close that its breath knocked his cap on one side without harming him although it killed a man behind him. The most extraordinary shot that hit the "SYDNEY" was one which looked into a certain mess. The side there was not armoured, but for some reason this shot failed to come through. It merely split the side, looked into the room, and then fell back calmly into the sea. It so happened that a stoker was standing at the door of this mess room when the projectile struck the steel plate exactly opposite to him. He gave one glance at it as its nose looked in and then fled for his life. He had a good laugh at himself immediately afterwards, for of course a shell which is heard - much more one which is seen - is absolutely harmless; one which is going to hit you is neither seen nor heard.
1,500 GERMAN SHELLS