Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/41



''Rear-Admiral Fiske's graphic description of the battle between the Australian cruiser "Sydney" and the German commerce destroyer "Emden," is all the more interesting because it comes from an American naval officer who has distinguished himself by the invention of devices which have done much to improve American gunnery. The frightful havoc wrought by shell fire on the doomed German ship carries with it a lesson in preparedness, as Admiral Fiske points out.''—Editor.

HEN making her last raid, which was against South Keehng, an island of the Cocos group, a few hundred miles southwest of Sumatra and Borneo, and while she had three officers and forty enlisted men on shore, the German commerce-destroyed E}nden was surprised by the Australian cruiser Sydney that had been told by wireless of her presence. The Sydney was a vessel of five thousand two hundred tons displacement, had a maximum speed of twenty-six knots and carried eight six-inch guns that fired projectiles weighing one hundred pounds. The Emden had a displacement of three thousand six hundred tons, mounted ten four-inch guns that fired projectiles weighing about thirty-two pounds. She had a maximum speed at that time of one or two knots less than the Sydney. An action ensued, the results of which are clearly indicated by the photographs here shown. The battle began at a range of about two and a quarter miles; but the range was quickly increased by the Sydney whose Captain took advantage of her superior speed