[Illustration: Battle of January 24, 1915--9.30 a.m.]
"We were under fire first in the action and last," said a German survivor. "Almost every British ship flung shot and shell at us. It was awful. I have never seen such gunnery, and hope that as long as I live I never shall. We could not fight such guns as the British ships had, and soon we had no guns with which to fight anything. Our decks were swept by shot, and the guns were smashed and lying in all directions, their crews wiped out. One terrible shell from a big gun I shall never forget. It burst right in the heart of the ship, and killed scores of men. It fell where many men had collected, and killed practically every one of them. We all had our floating equipment, and we soon needed it. One shell killed five men quite close to me, and it was only a matter of time when nothing living would be left upon the ship, if she continued to float. When we knew that we were beaten, and that our flag was not to come down, many of us were praying that the ship would sink, in order that no more men would be killed. We would rather trust to the British picking us up after our ship had sunk than to their missing us with those terrible guns so long as she kept afloat."
About noon a British destroyer, the _Meteor_, torpedoed the _Bluecher_, and she began to sink. Here is an officer's description of the final scene:--
"She heeled completely over, and sank in eight and a half minutes, hundreds of men clambering over her side, and standing there, just as if it were the upper deck, waiting for the final plunge. But there was no plunge. Slowly and slowly she sank, and as she went down some were sliding into the sea, others taking running leaps. A few seconds more, and there was no sign of her left, except her dead and living clustered in the water together. We were about three hundred yards away, and watched her go down, and I was particularly struck with the ease and slowness with which she sank. Not till the waves had almost entirely closed over her did the bow heave slightly out of the water, and she disappeared stern first."
The _Bluecher_ went to her doom with her flag flying. Some of the crew, while waiting the order to leap into the water, sang "_Die Wacht am Rhein_." Officers were seen to shake hands and link arms together, and thus sink into their watery grave. Though the Germans had made no attempt to save the crews of the _Monmouth_ and the _Good Hope_ during the fight off Coronel, and though our men were furious at the fiendish work done by the German cruisers at Scarborough and the Hartlepools, they began the work of rescue at once. Torpedo boats and pinnaces rushed to the scene to pick up survivors, and light cruisers stood by to help.