This escape was made easier, and all the shooting throughout the two cruiser actions was made much more difficult by the sudden change in the weather that has already been noted as having begun shortly before 4 o’clock. A drizzling rain had set in, and not only had it become practically impossible to use rangefinders owing to the poor light, but it became extremely hard to detect the fall of shot and so correct the fire. In considering these two fights then, the extremely difficult conditions that prevailed must be taken into account. Let us deal first with the pursuit and destruction of _Nürnberg_.
At 5 o’clock _Kent_, after a chase of nearly four hours, was getting within range of _Nürnberg_. _Nürnberg_ had crept away to the eastward of _Leipzig_, so that by the time fire was opened, a considerable distance separated this from the other engagements. In point of fact, when the action began, the rain and increasing mist hid every other ship from sight. It was _Nürnberg_ which was first to open fire and, so far as could be judged, the range must have been about 11,000 yards or slightly over. _Kent_ held her fire for another ten minutes, as if waiting to see what the _Nürnberg’s_ guns could do at this range. She could of course, only use her two guns on the quarter-deck, and the after gun on the port side. To the astonishment of the _Kent_ all her first salvoes were right over. The range would have been a long one for a 6-inch gun; it seemed almost fabulous for a 4.2. Ten minutes later _Kent_ opened with her bow turret, and for the next half hour an active duel was maintained. The _Kent_ had sheered off a little to the left so as to bring her forward casemate guns also to bear. There was no doubt about the _Nürnberg’s_ shots falling over close, and the _Kent’s_ guns seemed from the ship to be fairly on the target. But for a considerable time there was no evidence that they were hitting, and _Kent_ was certainly not suffering from _Nürnberg’s_ fire, astonishingly accurate as it was. But suddenly, soon after half-past five, _Kent_, who was keeping up a speed of nearly a knot more than she had ever done before, began to gain enormously on her opponent. The range had been over 11,000 yards at 5 o’clock; by twenty minutes to six it got almost down to 7,000. It was obvious that _Nürnberg’s_ motive power had somehow come to grief. Had one of _Kent’s_ shells landed in her engine, or had one of the boilers, under the strain of so many hours’ high pressure, given way?