Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 46
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[Page 46]
The sea all around was strewn with corpses either blown or thrown overboard, and the sharks were busy with their horrid feast. Hundreds of sea birds too floated round the ship, all killed one presumes by the blast of the guns.
There was a nasty swell on, and the seas kept breaking over the Emden's poop, making doubly difficult the work of our boats.
The transfer of the wounded began about eleven in the morning and went all day. There were between sixty and seventy badly wounded men, and as each man had to be lashed into a bamboo and canvas stretcher on the Emden's deck, lowered into our boats, rowed across, and hoisted into the Sydney with a derrick, the work was necessarily slow.
The decks of the Emden were a shambles. Her steel plates were rent and torn out of all recognition. There were great gaping holes as big as cart wheels, and all was blackened with fire.
It was impossible in some places to get a foot hold; men and dreadfully mangled masses that had once been men lay all about or were gathered into heaps and covered over. One gun's crew had been behind their shield when a shell got them from the rear and all were squashed smashed out of recognition; and the gun dismounted. The heaps of shell cases which lay around the guns testified the fight she had put up: not an unspent shell remained. One could not gaze at the scene of ruin and slaughter and remain unmoved, for the Germans in this ship at least had lived and fought and died as gallant gentlemen.
In this action the Germans lost 108 in killed alone out of about 400.
The wounded were a piteous sight. They had lain for over twenty four hours with no water and scarcely any attention, for the Emden's fresh water tanks had been badly holed.
As they came aboard they were laid in rows along the waist and Harbour passage, for the Sick Bay and wardroom were already full.
Some had arms and legs shot off short, some were riddled with