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[Page 15]
on this mast, and the men in it were all thrown into the sea.
THE FATAL SHOT
It was just after this, about a quarter of an hour after the first shot was fired, that a salvo from the "SYDNEY" entered the stern of the "EMDEN" and burst just below her after deck. The effect of this shot was astonishing. The deck itself, which was steel covered with corticene, was lifted, torn from its beams, and left with a surface like that of the sea waves. It was riddled with holes. The after guns upon it was instantly put out of action. Seven men - probably the greater part of one gun crew - were blown alive overboard into the sea, where they swam about with no wreckage to help them, and most of them wounded, until the "SYDNEY" happened to come across no less than five of them at a period from seven to eight and a half hours later, and picked them out of the water alive. The same salvo set them "EMDEN" furiously on fire aft, - a fire which could not be and was not put out, and most serious of all it destroyed her steering gear.
Those on the "SYDNEY" saw the effect of this shell first when they noticed that the smoke began to pour out of the "EMDEN"s after deck - as a matter of fact the flat containing the Officers' cabins and all that part of the ship were on fire. The very paint on the ship's side was burning fiercely. It was noticed that from this time time the "EMDEN"s speed was very much decreased, but it was not known upon the "SYDNEY" until after the fight that anything had happened to the enemy's steering gear. The cause of the decrease in speed really was that from this time until the end of the action the "EMDEN" was steering by means of her screws, which meant an enormous loss of speed at every turn.
THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES
This part of the action - the first fifteen minutes of it was the only one which most of the spectators on Cocos saw. It was in the first fifteen minutes that all the casualties on the British side occurred - whilst the battle was more or less even; but the moment the German landing party, watching from the Island, saw the "EMDEN"s funnel fall, they ordered the inhabitants off the roof of the cable ststion, and kept them shut up in a room in which they could not see the progress of the fight. The behaviour of the landing party is said to have been perfectly fair and courteous; but from this moment their time was occupied in very important business. They realised which way the fight was going, and for the rest of the day they occupied themselves in seizing every useful article that they could find on the Island, and loading it into a schooner which was lying in the port. They wished for no interference during these operations.
THE "EMDEN"s SHOTS.
Before her steering gear broke down, the "EMDEN" had ported her helm and made a rush at the "SYDNEY", which the "SYDNEY" easily eluded, slipping far ahead and always keeping practically at her favorite range. The "EMDEN" now doubled back in an endeavour to close, but the "SYDNEY" simply doubled also, and steamed parallel to her. The "EMDEN" was still firing rapidly, but from this onwards the "SYDNEY" was practically unhurt by any of her shots. Two telling hits had been made by the "EMDEN" since the one before-mentioned. The first of these was from a lyddite or high-explosive shell which passed near the funnels and exploded not far from the "SYDNEY"s second starboard gun - that is a gun on the unengaged side of the ship. The high-explosive set fire to some paint and also to some cordite which was ready for loading. Some