She now heeled over quite slowly, giving her men plenty of time to get up on deck. At 6 P.M. our ships were perhaps 4,000 yards off, and the Germans could be seen gathering together on her "forecastle quarter deck." Remaining on her beam ends for a few seconds, during which the men were seen clambering about on her side, she quite gently subsided and disappeared without any explosion, although a film of steamy haze hovered over the spot where she sank. The bow remained poised for a second or two, after which she foundered at 6.2 in latitude 52° 40′ S., longitude 56° 20′ W., having withstood the combined fire of our ships for an hour and forty-five minutes. The sea was no longer quite calm, and a misty, drizzling rain was falling. Closing in hastily, every effort was made to save life, and boats were got out and lowered. This is no easy job after an action, as the boats are turned inboard, resting on their crutches, and are kept partially filled with water in case a shell might strike them and cause a fire. This water must first be drained out, then the weight of the boat is hoisted on to the slips to enable it to be swung outboard, which is not easy if the ship has been hit near the water-line, causing a list. Finally, several of the boats are certain to be riddled with shell splinters. A midshipman, describing the scene that followed, writes, "We cast overboard every rope's end we can and try our hands at casting to some poor wretch feebly struggling within a few yards of the ship's side. Missed him! Another shot. He's further off now! Ah! the rope isn't long enough. No good; try someone else. He's sunk now!" The men, however, had not yet heard of the rough weather during the Coronel action, and still thought that the Germans might have saved our poor fellows there. Lines were thrown over with shouts of, "Here, Sausage, put this round your belly," and the like. Taking into consideration that it was estimated some 600 men had been killed or wounded, and that the temperature of the water was 40°, it was fortunate that as many as 170 officers and men were rescued. The gallant Admiral Count von Spee, whose conduct bears out the best traditions of naval history, and his two sons, all lost their lives in the course of the day. A curious feature of this action was the terrific damage done by 12-inch lyddite shell. One of the _Gneisenau's_ turrets was severed from its trunk and blown bodily overboard. Nearly every projectile that hit caused a fire, which was often promptly extinguished by the splash of the next one falling short. Indeed, it was stated by the prisoners that the guns' crews in the German ships were frequently working their guns up to their knees in water, and towards the latter part of the engagements were unable to fire on account of the volume of water thrown up by short shots.