Admiral Sturdee, greatly impressed with the bravery of the Germans, decided to give them one more chance for life. He ordered a cessation of firing and called upon the two cruisers to surrender.
The merciful offer was met with a cry of defiance, and a shell burst over the admiral's flagship, dropping half a score of men, two of whom never arose.
Now the British ships closed in on the two German cruisers, and poured broadside after broadside into the almost defenseless hulls.
Suddenly the Gneisenau disappeared beneath the waves, with all on board, the last that was heard of her being a cheer from her crew.
The Leipzig lasted but a moment longer. She was listing badly, and now, suddenly rising on her beam's end, she dived beneath the water.
The battle of the Falkland Islands, the greatest British sea victory since the battle off Heligoland, was over.
Boats were quickly lowered from the British ships to rescue, if possible, survivors of the German ships. A few were picked up, but not many. Of the more than 1,800 men aboard the three German cruisers, at least 1,700 had gone to the bottom.
The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were the largest cruisers of the German fleet. They were sister ships, of 11,600 tons' displacement, 450 feet on the waterline, and were rated at a speed of 22 1/2 knots. Each carried a complement of 765 men, and was armed with eight 8.2-inch guns, six 6-inch guns, twenty 24-Pounders, four machine-guns and four torpedo tubes.
The Leipzig had a displacement of 3,250 tons and carried 286 men. She was 341 feet long on the waterline, had a beam of 43 1/2 feet, and was rated at 23 knots. Her largest guns, of which she carried ten, were 4-inch. She had also ten 1-pounders, four machine-guns and two torpedo tubes.
And these were the three mighty vessels of the battle fleet of
the Emperor of Germany which, after having preyed for months upon
British shipping, had finally been sent to the bottom of the
Atlantic by Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee, chief of the British
War Staff.