Fortunately for the _Kent_, too, the _Nürnberg_ had her own boiler troubles, but they were of a different order, and she was unable to make her usual speed; and, after about an hour, the _Kent_ was near enough to open fire at a range of a little over six miles. It was now the gunners' opportunity, and though they were reservists, drawn, as one of the officers put it, "from all sorts of weird places," they rose to the occasion, like first-class experts, and found their target almost at once. Nor could Captain Allen afford himself the license that had been the right policy for the other commanders. It was now past five; rain was falling; his supply of combustible bric-à-brac was {81} strictly limited. It was a case of now or never, and the _Kent_, taking her punishment as it came, pushed the action for all she was worth. With her foretop shot away down to the crows' nest, and her silk ensign cut to ribbons; with her wireless knocked out, so that she could no longer send, though she was still able to receive, messages; with half a dozen holes through her funnels and several more in her side--she gained a quarter of a mile with every salvo until she was pounding the _Nürnberg_ at less than three miles distance. Struck in all thirty-six times, and with five men killed and eleven wounded, the behaviour of all on board was, in their captain's own words, "perfectly magnificent"--a typical example being that of Sergeant Mayes, whose courage and presence of mind probably saved the ship. A bursting shell had started a fire among some cordite charges in the casemate. A tongue of flame had leaped down the hoist and into the ammunition passage, endangering the magazine. Without an instant's pause, and although severely burned, Sergeant Mayes picked up a cordite charge and threw it away, afterward flooding the compartment and putting out a fire that had started in some neighbouring empty shell bags. No wonder that Captain Allen, writing afterward to the Association of Men at _Kent_, should have said that "though the enemy fought bravely to the very end, against such men as I have the honour to command, they never could have had a chance." By half-past six, the _Nürnberg_ was on fire forward, {82} all her guns being apparently silenced, and the _Kent_ ceased shelling her, and drew up within two miles. Her flag was still flying, however, and the _Kent_ opened fire again, but only for a few minutes longer, when the _Nürnberg_ hauled her flag down and made signs of surrender. She was now blazing furiously, and listing heavily to starboard; and the _Kent_ began to take measures to save life. Unfortunately all her boats had been holed by the _Nürnberg's_ fire, and, before she could launch them, they had to be repaired. Two were quickly patched up, but the crews were only successful in saving a dozen men, five of whom afterward died on board from the effects of wounds and exposure.