There was amidst all the din and turmoil and shooting flame a distinct pause in the battle as the crews of both fleets, or all those who could see what was happening, watched spell-bound the issue of this attack and counter-attack. They had not long to wait. One of the huge German torpedoes caught the _Excellent_ right astern and wrecked her rudder and propellers. Another struck the _Sultan_ almost amidships, inflicting upon her terrible injury, so that she listed heavily. The _Wilhelm II._ was struck by a British torpedo right on her bows, and as she was already low in the water, began to fill and sink. The scene at this point was one of appalling horror. One battleship, the _Wilhelm II._, was sinking fast, with none to rescue her crew; the men were rushing up on deck; the fire from her guns had ceased; she lay on the sea a shattered wreck, riddled with shell, and smoking with the fires which still burnt fiercely amidst the débris of her upper works. Not far from her lay the _Excellent_, completely disabled, but still firing. Near the _Excellent_, again, moving very slowly, and clearly in a sinking condition, but still maintaining gallantly the battle, was the _Glasgow_, in a dense cloud of smoke caused by the bursting shell from the guns of sixteen enemies and the blazing fires on board. Making off to the south to beach herself was the _Sultan_, in lamentable plight, with a heavy list. It was 8.40 a.m., or little more than an hour since the joining of battle, and the German Admiral at this moment signalled that victory was his. The news was sent by wireless telegraphy to the German cruisers out at sea, and by them transmitted to Emden and Berlin. At 11 that morning newspapers were selling in the streets of the German capital with the news that the British Fleet was beaten, and that Britain had lost the command of the sea. Five British battleships, it was added, in the brief wireless message, had been already sunk or put out of action. +--------------------------------------+ | Berlin um Eins! Berlin um Eins! | | | | Das Kleine Journal | | | | Mittags-Ausgaße. | | | | Berlin, Montag, den 3 September 1910 | | | | Triumph der | | Deutschen | | Waffen. | | | | Vernichtung der | | Englischen | | Flotte. | | | | Von Kronhelm Auf | | Dem Vormarsche | | Nach London. | +--------------------------------------+ THE FIRST NEWS IN BERLIN OF THE GERMAN VICTORY.