Bay is a small settlement, and there was no Chilean force present capable of interning a German warship. I will indicate what happened. The main facts have been told in the correspondence which took place later between the Chilean and British Governments. I will tell the story as I have myself gathered it, and as I interpret it. The _Dresden_ lay in neutral Chilean waters, yet her flag was flying, and she had trained her guns upon the English squadron which had found her there. There was nothing to prevent her—though liable to internment—from making off unless steps were taken at once to put her out of action. She had many times before broken the neutrality regulations of Chili, and was rightly held by us to be an outlaw to be captured or sunk at sight. Acting upon this just interpretation of the true meaning of neutrality, Captain Luce of the _Glasgow_, the senior naval officer, directed his own guns and those of the _Kent_ to be immediately fired upon the _Dresden_. The first broadside dismounted her forecastle guns and set her ablaze. She returned the fire without touching either of the English ships. Then, after an inglorious two and a half minutes, the _Dresden’s_ flag came down. Captain Lüdecke of the _Dresden_ despatched a boat conveying his “adjutant” to the _Glasgow_ for what he called “negotiations,” but the English captain declined a parley. He would accept nothing but unconditional surrender. Lüdecke claimed that his ship was entitled to remain in Cumberland Bay for repairs, that she had not been interned, and that his flag had been struck as a signal of negotiation and not of surrender. When the Englishman Luce would not talk except through the voices of his guns, the German adjutant went back to his ship and Lüdecke then blew her up. His crew had already gone ashore, and the preparations for destroying the _Dresden_ had been made before her captain entered upon his so-called “negotiations.”