But meanwhile the officers of the _Sydney_ and their untried but gallant and steady men have not been idle. Their first salvo fired immediately after the _Emden_ opened is much too far, their second is rather wild and ragged, but with the third some hits are made. The _Sydney_ had fortunately just secured her range when the principal range-finder was wrecked and the after control scattered, and Gunnery Lieutenant Rahilly is able to keep it by careful spotting and rate-of-change observations. Glossop, who has the full command given by superior speed, manœuvres so as to keep out to about 8,000 yards, to maintain as nearly constant a rate of change as is possible, and to present the smallest danger space to the enemy. The _Emden’s_ first effort to close in has failed, and now that the _Sydney’s_ 100-pound shells begin to burst well on board of her the _Emden’s_ one chance upon which von Müller has staked everything has disappeared. During the first fifteen minutes the _Sydney_ was hit ten times, but afterwards not at all; the _Emden_ was hit again and again during the long-drawn-out two hours of the hopeless struggle. After twenty minutes the _Emden’s_ forward funnel went and she caught fire aft. Her steering gear was wrecked and she became dependent upon the manipulation of her propellers, and the inevitable falling off in speed to about thirteen knots. During the early critical minutes of the action the _Sydney_ had the _Emden_ upon her port side, but all her casualties were suffered upon the starboard or disengaged side due to the steepness with which the German shells were falling. Once she was hit upon the two-inch side armour over the engine room and the shell, which this time burst, left a barely discernible scratch. Another shell fell at the foot of a starboard gun pedestal in the open space behind the shield, burst and wounded the gun’s crew but left the gun unhurt except for a spattering of a hundred tiny dents. The electric wires were not even cut. It is remarkable that during the whole of the action no electric wires in any part of the _Sydney_ were damaged. As I have told both gun controls of the _Sydney_ were hit during the first few minutes though only the after one was put out of action; the _Emden_, less fortunate, had both her controls totally destroyed and all the officers and men within them killed.