The Englishmen on the island were little pleased at the prospect, and begged permission, in case it should come to a battle, to withdraw to one of the other islands. Their request was granted.
Accompanied by two of my signal men, I now took my station on the roof of the highest house to watch the fight between the two cruisers. As a whole, the Englishmen showed little interest in the conflict that was going on but a few thousand meters distant from the island. Other matters seemed to claim their attention. With an ingratiating smile one of them stepped up to our officers, who were head over ears in work down on the beach, and asked:
It was an invitation which, under the circumstances, we felt compelled to decline.
By the time I had reached the roof, the fight between the _Emden_ and the other cruiser was well under way. I could not identify the enemy's ship, but, judging from her structure, and the amount of water raised by the falling shells, I concluded that it must be one of the two Australian cruisers, the _Sydney_ or the _Melbourne_. As the columns of water raised by the enemy's shells were much taller than those caused by the _Emden's_, I estimated the guns of the enemy to be of 15 centimeter caliber.
The _Sydney_, for she it was, as I learned later, was more than a match for the _Emden_. Our ship of 3600 tons displacement could deliver a broadside of only five 10-1/2 centimeter guns, and had no side armor, whereas the _Sydney_, being a vessel of 5700 tons displacement, could fire a broadside of five 15.2 centimeter guns, and had armored sides. From the very beginning, the _Emden's_ fire reached its mark on the enemy's cruiser, whose guns, it must be said, were aimed pretty badly. The water spouts that were raised by their falling shells were mostly several hundred meters distant from one another. But when one of the volleys did hit, it made havoc on our unarmored vessel.
During the very first of the fight, the forward smoke stack of the _Emden_ was shot away and lay directly across the deck. Another shell crashed into the stern aft of the cabin, and started a great blaze, the gray smoke of which was mixed with white steam, showing that the steam pipes had been damaged. The _Emden_ now turned sharply about and made a dash for her foe, apparently for the purpose of making a torpedo attack. It cost her her foremast, which was shot away and fell overboard. For the moment it seemed as though the enemy's ship intended to discontinue the fight, for she turned and ran at high speed, followed by the _Emden_. Whether the _Sydney_ had suffered serious damage which could not be discerned from without, I could not tell. Perhaps it was simply her intention to increase her fighting distance from the _Emden_, in order to take advantage of the greater caliber of her guns. The running fight between the two ships now took a northerly course at an ever increasing distance from the island, and soon the two cruisers, still fighting, were lost to view beyond the horizon.