As soon as the German light cruisers turned off to their starboard hand the _Kent_, _Glasgow_, and _Cornwall_ started after them in accordance with the orders they had received from Admiral Sturdee. The _Bristol_ had previously signalled that three more Germans, looking like colliers or transports, had appeared off the Falklands, and, having received orders to take the armed auxiliary cruiser _Macedonia_ with her and destroy them, had proceeded to chase them to the westward. The strangers turned out to be two and not three ships, the _Baden_ and _St. Isabel_. Both were captured and sunk after the removal of their crews. Meanwhile the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ were pressing closer and closer on the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_. "Suddenly we altered course", wrote a midshipman on board the _Invincible_ to his father,[96] "and made for the enemy. I had not noticed we were closing, and when their first salvo went off I was still on the top of the turret. I could see all the shells coming at us, and I felt they were all coming straight at me. However, they all missed except one, which hit the side of the ship near the ward-room, and made a great green flash, and sent splinters flying all round. I hopped below armour quickly and started working again. We were nearing the _Scharnhorst_ and began firing for all we were worth. We hit again and again. First our left gun sent her big crane spinning over the side. Then our right gun blew her funnel to atoms, and then another shot from the left gun sent her bridge and part of the forecastle sky-high. "We were not escaping free, however. Shots were hitting us repeatedly, and the spray from the splashes of their shells was hiding the _Scharnhorst_ from us. Suddenly a great livid flame rushed through the gun-ports, and splinters flew all round, and we felt the whole 150 or 200 tons of the turret going up in the air. We thought we were going over the side and would get drowned like rats in a trap. However, we came down again with a crash that shook the turret dreadfully, and continued firing as hard as ever. Nothing in the turret was out of order at all. The range continued to come down, and the whistles of the shells that flew over us grew into a regular shriek. Down came the range, 11,000, 10,000, 9000, 8800 yards. We were hitting the _Scharnhorst_ nearly every time. One beauty from our right gun got one of their turrets fair and square and sent it whizzing over the side." By 3.30 the _Scharnhorst_ was in a bad way. She was on fire, smoke and steam poured out of her in many places, and when a shell would knock a big hole in her side a dull furnace-like glow was seen within. Several of her guns were out of action and she now turned partially to starboard, apparently with the idea of getting her starboard guns to bear.