These conditions were first brought about when, at twenty minutes past one, the _Leipzig_ turned away toward the southwest, soon to be followed by the _Nürnberg_ and _Dresden_, with the _Glasgow_, _Kent_, and _Cornwall_ in pursuit. With them had started the _Carnarvon_, but the rear-admiral in command of her, finding his speed insufficient to keep up with the light cruisers, had to give up the chase, and joined the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ in engaging the {70} _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_. Leaving the action of the smaller cruisers in the capable hands of Captain Luce of the _Glasgow_, let us follow the fortunes of the other three in the most immediate and important task. Of these the ten-year-old _Carnarvon_, pushing on as stoutly as she could, was still trying vainly to keep up with her swifter sisters; and the first encounter was reduced, therefore, to a four-cornered fight lasting for about fifty minutes. Beginning at twenty minutes past one, the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_, after five minutes of a running battle, turned a little to port, began to close the range, and accepted the challenge; and, five minutes later, opened fire themselves. Though of smaller calibre, their guns, firing very rapidly, were as usual handled with extreme ability; and, in the words of the flag-lieutenant--half-way up the _Invincible's_ foremast, in the director-tower with Admiral Sturdee--they shot indeed "fiendishly well." "We went on hammering away," he wrote, "for some time, getting closer and closer, and they were hitting us pretty badly. I thought that our foremast had gone once. The Admiral and I were half-way up so as to get a good view. One of the legs of the mast was shot away. Shell fire is unpleasant, to put it mildly. Exploding shells, when they hit the ship, are worse, as one wonders how many she will stand. The Admiral was wonderfully cool and collected, and I bobbed my head at every shell, and got a stiff neck from doing it!"