Her only chance was to make a dash through one of the wide gaps that parted each pair of British cruisers, and this was not a very hopeful course. The German captain had already recognised the British ships from their build, and knew that the two nearest were good for 23½ knots, and that they each carried four 12-inch and eight 9·2-inch guns. He steered between the _Iphigenia_ and _Intrepid_, fearful if he turned back that he would be cut off by the British cruisers behind him in the Bristol Channel. Observing his tactics, the two British ships closed up, steaming inwards till the gap narrowed to five miles. The _Deutschland_ turned once more, and endeavoured to pass south of the _Iphigenia_ and between her and the next vessel in the British line, the _Orion_; but her change of course enabled the _Iphigenia_ to close her within 7000 yards and to open fire from the forward 12-inch barbette. Five shots were fired with both vessels racing their fastest, the _Deutschland_ to escape and the _Iphigenia_ to cut her off, and the fifth shell caught the German vessel right amidships, exploding with great violence. The starboard 9·2-inch barbette simultaneously hit her three times astern, just between her fourth funnel and the mainmast, but all these shells seemed to pass right through the ship. The _Deutschland_ doubled yet again, to avoid the fire, but now found the _Orion_ coming up astern. The German vessel was going about twenty-four knots, but the _Orion_ put two 12-inch shells into her from the fore-barbette before she passed out of practical range. Just then the _Sirius_ came up from the east, and steering across the bows of the _Deutschland_ at about 5000 yards fired in a couple of minutes about 120 6-inch shells at her, hitting her repeatedly. The arrival of this new antagonist from the east compelled the German captain to alter course afresh and make one more bid for safety. The damage done to his ship by the British shells had been exceedingly serious; two fires had broken out amidships, and were gaining; one of the funnels was so riddled that the draught in the group of boilers which it served had fallen, and the speed of the ship had diminished by a full knot. The big British armoured cruisers, after being for a few minutes left astern, were fast gaining on her. Nevertheless she now stood towards them and endeavoured to pass between them. The desperate effort was doomed to fail. The _Orion_ and _Iphigenia_ closed her, one on each beam, and opened fire with their tremendous broadsides. The end came quickly. Three 12-inch shells from the _Iphigenia_ caught her amidships, low down on the hull near the waterline, and amidst a series of explosions her engines stopped and she began to sink. The injury done to her was too extensive to save her, and at 9.50 p.m. the sea closed over the last of the German raiders in that vicinity.