Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-12-18 | Page 4 | Crew Cheered as the Waters Engulfed Them

GREW CHEERED IS THE HERS ENGULFED THEM Scharnhorst Refused to Surrender Sur-render After Her Fate Was Sealed and Soon Went Down DETAILED ACCOUNT OF BATTLE AT SEA German Squadron, Taken Unawares by British Warships, War-ships, Fought to the End BUENOS UEES Argentina Dec 17 The German cru sers sent Ho the tot torn off the Talkland islands on Decern ber 8 apparently were taken unawares by the Br t sh at a t mo when no ther s de was expecting an encounter The first detailed accounts of the battle wh ch reached here today from Puerto Gallegos Patagonia say that the Ger mans were on ther way to se ze the Talkland slands Br t)ih possess ons Then they came unexpectedly upon a lone Br t sh Tiarsh p The other mem bers ot the fleet were taking on 6up pi es from 'ne ghbor ng islands at the time Before the .Germans were aware of the strength of the r opponents these sh ps closed m on them and the fate of Adiiiral von Spee s squadron was soon sealed The story of the battle was told $y passengers orr the Br tish steamer Or s a which arrived at Pnnta Arenas from Callao Ch le They say that the Germans fought bravely to the end even the colliers refusing to surrender Xo ses -of the Brit sh were placed at e ght men Germans Outmatched It was a f o midable Brit sh squadron jahich faced the Gerrnans Included in at were, the battle h p Canopus the bat le cruisers Invincible and Inflexible and. the cruisers Kent Cornwall Car oarvoo Bristol and Glasgow It far Outmatched in strength the German squadron consisting of the five cruis ers Scharnhorst Gneisenau Leipzig JTurnberg and Presden The But sh squadron arrived at Port Stanley Falkland islands on December 7 to take on supplies The next morn ing the Canopus which was guarding the entrances to the port sighted a hos tile warsh p Four others quickly came into view and were reCogn zed as the squadron of Admiral von Spee The German warsh ps had left the Ch lean islands of Juan Fernandez on November 15 for the Falkland islands to take pos sess on of the slands and destroy the v reless stat on Rushed Into Fight Only the Canopus was vis ble at first to the Germans who steamed straight at her The Candpus opened fire and the other Br tish warsh ps rushed to her ass stance The bcharnhorst Gne senau and Le p tig formed n battle 1 ne The Nurn berg and Dresden however dropped back from the fir ng 1 ne The Br t sh warsh ps concentrated the r fire on the Scharnhorst the flag ship When it became evident that she was doomed her crew assem Sled on the forward deck The Seharn horst refused to surrender and atter an hour s fight ng pi nged beneath the wa es The c ew preserved ts forma j, tion as the sh p went down ana cheered as the waters closed about them The Glasgow engaged the Le pz e and sank her The Gneisenau went down e ghty m les from Port Stanley The Nurnberg attempted td escape but after a pursuit of two hours was sunk The Carnarvon pursued the Dresden but was not swift enough to overhaul her and the German warsh p escaped 194 Men Rescued After the battle the Brit sh p eked up 194 Germans including a few offi cers Of these surv vors 100 were from the crewB of the German coll ers An opportun ty to surrender was offered the colliers but t was refused and they were sunk The cruiser Cornwal was damaged si ghtly below the water 1 ne None of the other Br tish warsh ps was dam aged On December 10 funeral ser ces were held for the e ght British sa lors k lied in the presence of the commanders and crews of the squadron The British admiralty report of the battle stated that only seven men of the Brit sh sq adron lost the r 1 ves