_Nürnberg_ poured in a broadside which sent the _Monmouth_ to the bottom. The _Glasgow_, badly damaged above water, but still full of speed and mettle, could do no more. The big German cruisers were coming up. Her captain took the only possible course. Shortly before the stricken _Monmouth_ disappeared under the waves he made off at full speed. No one was picked up, either from the _Good Hope_ or the _Monmouth_. Von Spee, who was not the man to neglect the rescue of his drowning enemies, gives an explanation. He was far from the _Good Hope_ when she blew up, but the _Nürnberg_ was quite close to the foundering _Monmouth_; why was no attempt made at rescue in her case at least? It was dark and there was a heavy sea running, but the risks of a rescue are not sufficient to excuse the absence of any attempt. The _Nürnberg_ had not been in the main action, she was flying up, knowing nothing of what had occurred, when she met and sank the _Monmouth_. Her captain saw other big ships approaching and thought that one of them was the _Good Hope_. This is von Spee’s excuse for the omission of his subordinate to put out boats—or even life lines—but one suspects that the captain of the _Nürnberg_ had a bad quarter of an hour when next he met his chief. The German squadron was undamaged, scarcely touched. Three men were wounded by splinters in the _Gneisenau_. That is the whole casualty list. One 6-inch shell went through the deck of the _Scharnhorst_ but did not explode—the “creature just lay down” and went to sleep. “It lay there,” writes von Spee, “as a kind of greeting.” The light German cruisers were not touched at all. But though the German squadron had come through the fight unharmed, it had ceased to be of much account in a future battle. The silly bombardment of Tahiti, and the action off Coronel, had so depleted the once overflowing magazines that not half the proper number of rounds were left for the heavy guns. No fresh supplies could be obtained. Von Spee could fight again, but he could not have won again had he been opposed to much lighter metal than that which overwhelmed him a few weeks later off the Falkland Islands.