Powerful as were the battleship's guns, they were unable to effect her destruction. It was not until several months had elapsed that the British Navy was able to finish off the German cruiser. The work was eventually carried out by the little monitors _Severn_ and _Mersey_, which had made their _debut_ on the Belgian coast. While the _Weymouth_ and _Pioneer_ engaged the guns on the island and others which had been mounted on the river bank, the two monitors steamed up the river and engaged the _Königsberg_. The battle lasted for a long time, as the raider was so ensconced in jungle that the airmen who were "spotting" for the British found the greatest difficulty in seeing where their shot fell. Most of the time the German got six guns to bear on the monitors, and generally fired salvoes. After six hours her masts were still standing, but shortly afterwards she was set on fire by a salvo from the monitors. Her effective guns were reduced to one, and before long she ceased fire altogether. FOOTNOTES: [89] _Naval and Military Record._ [90] _Ibid._ [91] _Journal of Commerce_, Weekly Edition, 14th April, 1915. [92] In the _Times_. [93] i.e. of guns. CHAPTER XIX A Reverse and a Victory "Through the fog of the fight we could dimly see, As ever the flame from the big guns flashed, That Cradock was doomed, yet his men and he, With their plates shot to junk and their turrets smashed, Their ship heeled over, her funnels gone, Were fearlessly, doggedly, fighting on. . . . . . . . . . . "We could see by the flashes, the dull, dark loom Of their hull as it bore toward the Port of Doom, Away on the water's misty rim-- Cradock and his few hundred men, Never, in time, to be seen again. "While into the darkness their great shells screamed, Little the valiant Germans dreamed That Cradock was teaching them how to go When the fate their daring, itself, had sealed, Waiting, as yet, o'er the ocean's verge, To their eyes undaunted would stand revealed; And snared by a stronger, swifter foe, Out-classed, out-metalled, out-ranged, out-shot By heavier guns, but not out-fought, They, too, would sink in the sheltering surge." JOHN E. DOLSON. (In an American Newspaper.) A SAD but glorious day in the annals of the British Navy has now to be referred to--the defeat of Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron off the coast of Chile, with the loss of the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ with all hands. Sad because of the defeat and the loss of so many gallant officers and men--glorious on account of the way they fought and met their deaths. It is the only thing approaching a naval victory scored by the Germans up to the time of writing.