The German cruiser _Klopstock_ had by this time reappeared from the mist, and was steaming down to join battle. The situation was critical, yet the British ships stood their ground, and a well-placed shell from the _Sarpedon_ smashed the forward bridge of the _Schiller_ and injured her foremost funnel, while another from the _Athene_ burst through her port bulwarks amidships and so damaged her internally that her engines stopped and she was seen to be on fire.
At this moment the four-funnelled _Stein_ loomed out of the fog. The _Athene_ signalled to her consort and the destroyers to withdraw and accompany her to cut off this new enemy cruiser.
All followed her excepting the disabled _Levity_, which remained rolling helplessly within point blank range of the _Schiller’s_ guns. The explosion of the shell in her engine-room had burst one of her main steam-pipes, crippling her for the time. Her own 4-inch guns were served, but her shells fell short. Below decks the men kept grimly at their work in their efforts to repair the damaged machinery, and all the time shells fell fast and thick round the wounded vessel.
"It looks as if we were done for, this time," the commander admitted to one of his lieutenants, as Rodney Redisham mounted to the bridge to give a report from the chief engineer. "We can’t live long through this."
"Unless one of the flotilla should return and take us in tow," suggested the lieutenant. "They don’t seem to realise that we are crippled, sir."
"I am not going to ask for help, however," the commander resolved. "It would be too risky for one of them to come back now." He lighted a cigarette. "We will just hold on with our flag flying until we sink. Anyhow, we have done our duty."
"The chief engineer says he can’t repair the steam-pipe without drawing the fires, sir," Rodney reported.
"Thank you, Redisham," nodded the captain, "We will stick to the ship, but see that every one wears a life collar."
He continued to pace the bridge. The officers stood each at his post waiting for the end. No mercy could be expected from the Germans. The _Schiller_ had now only one small target within range, and although her gunners were aiming badly, yet here and there a sailor dropped wounded by flying shrapnel, and more than one shell burst inboard, wrecking cabins and killing two men.