er share of the destructive fire,
being put virtually out of action, and at the same time there occurred
an explosion on board the _Good Hope_ and she sank immediately, carrying
Admiral Cradock to his death.

There remained of the British force only the _Otranto_--a converted
liner and not really a battleship of the line--the _Glasgow_ and the
hopelessly disabled _Monmouth_ to continue the fight with an efficient
German force. The British commander ordered the former two to get away
by making speed, but the officer in charge of the _Glasgow_, paying no
heed to the order, kept in the fight.

[Illustration: The famous German raider "Emden" beached on one of the
Cocos Islands after being wrecked by the "Sydney's" shells.]

Dusk was then coming on and the _Glasgow_ sought to take advantage of it
by getting between the German ships and the limping _Monmouth_,
concealing the latter from them with her smoke. But the Germans had now
come to within 4,500 yards. To escape possible attack from torpedoes
the German ships spread out their line, but perceiving that such a
danger was not present, they again closed in to finish the crippled
British ships. All of the German ships now went for the _Glasgow_, and
she had to desert the _Monmouth_, which first sailed northward, in bad
condition, and later made an attempt to run ashore at Santa Maria, but
was unable to do so.

The inevitable "if" played its part in the battle. When the British
fleet first went after the Germans it had as one of its units the
battleship _Canopus_. But her speed was not up to that of the other
ships, and she fell far to their stern. By the time the action was on
she was too distant to take part in it. No attempt was made to go
together owing to the slowness of the battleship. The _Canopus_ was
never in the action at all, being 150 miles astern. Had Cradock not
desired to he need not have taken on the action but retired in the
_Canopus_. The setting of the sun also played its part; if daylight had
continued some hours more the British squadron might have held out till
the _Canopus_ brought up, for the almost horizontal rays of the sun were
in the eyes of the German gunners. But as it dropped below the watery
horizon it left the British ships silhouetted against a clear outline.
The _Canopus_ did not get into the fight, and the greatest concern of
the _Glasgow_ as she steamed off was to warn the British battleship to
keep off, for of less speed than the Germ