avoid the fire, but now found the Orion coming up astern.
The German vessel was going about twenty-four knots, but the Orion put two 12-inch shells into her from the fore-barbette before she passed out of practical range. Just then the Sirius came up from the east, and steering across the bows of the Deutschland at about 5000 yards fired in a couple of minutes about 120 6-inch shells at her, hitting her repeatedly.
The arrival of this new antagonist from the east compelled the German captain to alter course afresh and make one more bid for safety. The damage done to his ship by the British shells had been exceedingly serious; two fires had broken out amidships, and were gaining; one of the funnels was so riddled that the draught in the group of boilers which it served had fallen, and the speed of the ship had diminished by a full knot. The big British armoured cruisers, after being for a few minutes left astern, were fast gaining on her. Nevertheless she now stood towards them and endeavoured to pass between them.
The desperate effort was doomed to fail. The Orion and Iphigenia closed her, one on each beam, and opened fire with their tremendous broadsides. The end came quickly. Three 12-inch shells from the Iphigenia caught her amidships, low down on the hull near the waterline, and amidst a series of explosions her engines stopped and she began to sink. The injury done to her was too extensive to save her, and at 9.50 p.m. the sea closed over the last of the German raiders in that vicinity.
Those of the crew who survived were rescued by the Orion. Meantime the rest of the British cruisers had set to work to scout in the entrance to the Channel in order to capture the German ships which had appeared off Portsmouth. No trace, however, could be discovered of them, and at dawn on Monday the British Admiral reported that the Channel was thoroughly cleared. The Sirius and Andromache were then instructed to proceed to the west coast of Ireland, off which three German
