Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 42
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[Page 42]
[Following on from Page 40]
ship was slowly sinking.
We embarked everybody and then at close range we fired a salvo of six inch into the hull and the ship keeled over and slowly sunk. 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 had presumably been in the water for several hours, as it was now four o'clock in the afternoon. The boats of the Buresk were out adrift, and into these the struggling sailors clambered and later they were picked up and brought aboard.
We found the Emden still burning, but with her ensign flying. Until a ship strikes her ensign she has not surrendered, and the Sydney signalled in international code "do you surrender?" This was repeated several times with no response, and the guns were cleared away again and trained on the enemy. After a hurried consultation it was deemed essential to fire again, as we were unaware then that the enemy was completely out of action; and indeed he would have been quite within his rights in opening fire on us.
All the Emden's crew or what was left of them, mostly engineroom ratings whose work had lain below, were now gathered on deck, and when our guns eased off one could see quite plainly the shells tearing great lanes through the mass of humanity gathered on the decks.
The Germans probably wished to be able to say that they didn't surrender and perhaps didn't think the Sydney would fire on the ship again; but when she did the Germans quickly understood, and a man went aloft, hauled down his country's flag, and waved a white tablecloth.