By seven o'clock in the evening the _Nuernberg_ was practically "blind," for the flames from the fire that was raging on her had reached her conning tower. A member of her crew hauled down her flag, and the _Kent_, thinking that the fight was over, came close to her. While within a few hundred yards of her, however, she was greeted with new firing from the German cruiser. But this ceased under a raking from the _Kent's_ starboard guns, and once again the flag of the _Nuernberg_, which had been run up on resumption of shooting, was hauled down. Members of her crew then had to jump into the sea to escape death from burning--the fire was quenched only when she went down at half past seven. The overworked engineers and stokers of the _Kent_ were rewarded for their hard work by being permitted to come on deck to watch the _Nuernberg_ go down, and all were soon engaged in helping to save the lives of the German sailors in the water. Just as the red glow of the sinking _Nuernberg_ was dying down a large four-masted sailing ship, with all sails set, came out of the mist, her canvas tinged red by the flames' rays. Silently she went by, disappearing again into the mist, a weird addition to an uncanny scene. Chasing the various units of the broken line of German ships had taken the British ships miles from each other, but after ten o'clock they began to reach each other by wireless signals and all made again for Stanley. It was not until the afternoon of the next day, however, that word came from the _Kent_, for her pursuit had taken her farther than any of the other British ships. The _Bristol_ and _Macedonia_ had made good in their pursuit of the _Santa Isabel_ and _Baden_, but in going after the _Dresden_ the _Bristol_ was not successful; the German ship got away in the rainstorm which came up during the evening, and the _Bristol_, which had hurried out of the harbor at Stanley not quite ready for battle, was unable to keep on her trail. The fast _Eitel Friedrich_, which as a merchant ship converted into a man-o'-warsman had greater speed than any of the ships on either side, was able to get away also. These two German ships now took up their parts as raiders of allied commerce, and were not accounted for till months later. There was now on the high seas no German squadron. CHAPTER XXXVII SEA FIGHTS OF THE OCEAN PATROL