_Gneisenau_ respectively. The remaining British ships, with the
exception of the _Carnarvon_, gave attention to the three lighter German
cruisers and the _Eitel Friedrich_, which had broken from the first
formation and were now pointing southeast.

Von Spee ordered the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ to turn broadside to
the enemy. Shells were falling upon the German ships with fair accuracy,
but their return fire could do little damage to the British ships,
because the range was a little too great for the German 8.2-inch guns.
Those of the _Inflexible_ and _Invincible_ were of the 12-inch type.

All four ships were belching forth heavy black smoke that hung low over
the water after it left the funnels. A moderate breeze carried it
northward, and Von Spee moved his ships this way and that till his smoke
blew straight against the guns of the British ships, making it almost
impossible for the British gunners to take aim and note effect. But the
superior speed of the two British battle cruisers stood them in good
stead, and their commanders brought them up south of the enemy--on their
other side. It was now the German gunners who found the smoke in their
faces, and the advantage was with the British.

By three o'clock in the afternoon fire had broken out on the
_Scharnhorst_ and Von Spee replied to Sturdee's inquiry that he would
not quit fighting, though some of his guns were out of action and those
which still replied to the Britisher did now only at intervals. There
was evidently something wrong with the machinery that brought shells and
ammunition to her guns from out of her hold, the fire probably
interfering with it. A 12-inch shell cut right through her third funnel
and carried it completely off the ship. She turned so that she could
bring her starboard guns into action, and they did so feebly. The fire
on board her grew worse and worse, and it could be seen blood-red
through holes made by the shells from the _Invincible_ whenever her hull
showed through the dense clouds of escaping steam that enveloped her.
Just at four o'clock she began to list to port, thus having her
starboard guns put out of action, for they pointed toward the sky, and
the shells which came from them described parabolas, dropping into the
water at safe distance from the English ship. More and more she listed,
till her port beam ends were in the cold waters of the South Atlantic,
and while in that position she sank some fifteen minutes later.