The Vice-Admiral wasted no time. As a fact, all his ships were then coaling. And the officers not engaged in this were making plans for a day’s shooting over the rough moors in the neighbourhood of the town--where hares and partridges were to be found--and were many of them in mufti, and most of them at breakfast when the startling and welcome news of the advent of the enemy came to them. Everything, of course, gave way to the necessity of getting out of harbour with the utmost speed. Colliers were cast off. The furnaces were fed, and all hands were started to clean first the ships and then themselves. At eight the first ships seemed to be probably twenty miles off. Twenty minutes later, a further detachment came into sight; half an hour later than that, the last of the Germans were seen upon the horizon. Round about 9 o’clock _Kent_ was outside the harbour, while _Gneisenau_ and _Nürnberg_ were approaching at about twenty knots. 3. “At 9:20 A.M. the two leading ships of the enemy (_Gneisenau_ and _Nürnberg_), with guns trained on the wireless station, came within range of the _Canopus_, who opened fire at them across the low land at a range of 11,000 yards. The enemy at once hoisted their colours and turned away. At this time the masts and smoke of the enemy were visible from the upper bridge of the _Invincible_ at a range of approximately 17,000 yards across the low land to the south of Port William. “A few minutes later the two cruisers altered course to port, as though to close the _Kent_ at the entrance to the harbour, but about this time it seems that the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ were seen over the land, as the enemy at once altered course and increased speed to join their consorts. “The _Glasgow_ weighed and proceeded at 9:40 A.M. with orders to join the _Kent_ and observe the enemy’s movements.” The Germans, as we have seen, expected possibly to find _Canopus_ at the Falkland Islands, but not that she would be concealed from their fire behind the low-lying ground. Their astonishment then to find themselves under the fire of 12-inch guns at twenty minutes past nine was considerable. They therefore turned, not with the intention of running away but clearly to throw out the fire control that was directing the big guns at them, for it must have been about this time that they saw the county cruiser _Kent_ in the offing, and their first thought was to go in and finish her off. But a very few moments after there opened up over the line of vision the tripod masts of the two battle-cruisers, and the _Gneisenau_ and _Nürnberg_, that had been coming due north for the attack, now turned round to the east, and went full speed to join their approaching consorts, who were cutting off the corner made by the first two ships.