Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 250
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 250]
Chapter 4.
After the Fight
The battle had lasted about an hour and twenty minutes and we had expended about 600 shells. With the Emden well on the beach and incapable of further action, the Sydney steamed away after another ship which had been lurking on the horizon during the engagement and now seemed disposed to disappear.
On closing her we found her to be the Buresk, a British collier which the Emden had captured some days before, and whose Welsh coal had formed a welcome addition to her bunkers. There were aboard her a prize crew of two officers and ten men and a miscellaneous assortment of Chinamen. The Buresk hove to, and a boat was sent off there to discover that the Germans had opened the sea-cocks and flooded the engine room, and that the ship was slowly sinking. After embarking everybody we fired a salvo of six-inch into the hull at close range, and the ship heeled over and presently sank. The Buresk's boats were taken in tow, and the Sydney made back to North Keeling where the Emden lay. On the way men were seen struggling in the water, having been blown over the side by the bursting shells. These men