ime a signal was blown
on the siren from the ship; the officer in command collected his men,
marched them down to the beach, and re-embarked. The telegraphists
report that they were fairly and courteously treated. On arrival the
_Emden_ was still using her now famous fourth funnel, a dummy, and this
it was that caused the telegraphists to mistake her in the first
instance for the _Minotaur_, which is a four-funnelled armoured cruiser.
As she steamed away in the bright light of the tropic morning for what
was so shortly to prove her last cruise, the _Emden_ hauled down, and
stowed away, her dummy.

The action that ensued between the _Sydney_ and the _Emden_ is here
given in the official despatch of Captain Glossop, dated from Colombo on
November 15th:

I have the honour to report that whilst on escort duty with the convoy
under the charge of Captain Silver, H.M.A.S. _Melbourne_, at 6.30 a.m.
on Monday, Nov. 9th, a wireless message from Cocos was heard reporting
that a foreign warship was off the entrance. I was ordered to raise
steam for full speed at 7.0 a.m. and proceeded thither. I worked up to
twenty knots, and at 9.15 a.m. sighted land ahead and almost immediately
the smoke of a ship, which proved to be the H.I.G.M.S. _Emden_ coming
out towards me at a great rate. At 9.40 a.m. fire was opened, she firing
the first shot. I kept my distance as much as possible to obtain the
advantage of my guns. Her fire was very accurate and rapid to begin
with, but seemed to slacken very quickly, all casualties occurring in
this ship almost immediately. First, the foremost funnel of her went,
secondly the foremast, and she was badly on fire aft, then the second
funnel went, and lastly the third funnel, and I saw she was making for
the beach on North Keeling Island, where she grounded at 11.20 a.m. I
gave her two more broadsides and left her, to pursue a merchant ship
which had come up during the action.

2. Although I had guns on this merchant ship at odd times during the
action, I had not fired, and as she was making off fast, I pursued and
overtook her at 12.10, firing a gun across her bows and hoisting
International Code Signal to stop, which she did. I sent an armed boat,
and found her to be the ss. _Buresk_, a captured British collier, with
18 Chinese crew, 1 English steward, 1 Norwegian cook, and a German prize
crew of 3 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 12 men. The ship
unfortunately was sinking, so I took all on board, fir