The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-19
From the Chattanooga News. HHE following vivid description of the
 naval battle off the Falkland

U Ndb 1oilow1ng Vlvid description or the naval battle off the Falkland
 A Islands last December was written by Vice Admiral Sturdee's flag lieutenant on board the British Invinclble to a friend in England who forwarded a copy of it to a mutual acquaintance in New York. says the New York Times.
 q went through six hours hell yester- day-Tll start at the beginning. We ar rived at Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands at Il o'clock. the day before yes- terday. and we all started to coal, get ting in stores, etc, and of course there was lots of signaling to be done and lots to arrange, and I was busy all day till was sitting in my dressing gown and feeling very sleepy, drinking a cup of tea, when sgnalman came in and reposted 'Sapper Hill reports two men-of-war ap- proaching So I tore into the admlrals 8 ca bin and told him, then flew to my cabin and got into some clothes. We had col Hers alongside and steam was not up, at least it was at two hours notice; so there was a proper hustle and scurry, and we. told the colliers to shove off at once.
 Meanwhile on came these two, the Gnesenau and the Leipsiz. Then came the Scharnhorst, the Dresden and the Nurnberg over the horizon. They never knew the Invincible and Inflexible were anywhere but in the North sea, and as soon as they saw us they turned and ran. Well. we got out of the harbor in an hour and a quarter and off we went after them. We got within 10 miles of them at noon,
 so we slowed down to let the men have some food before the fight At 12:45 we
 went on at full speed, the Glasgow and
 ourselves, followed about three miles
 astern by the Carnavon, Cornwall and
 Kent The last three couldn't keep up.
 At o'clock we opened fire slowly, just trying the range, and we hit the Nurn-
 berg or the Lepsiz. I don't know which it was. Anyhow, she steered away and signaled to the Kent to chase her. The Glasgow turned around, too. without
 signal and went after her.
 We were going about 26 knots and clos | ing the enemy fast. The Dresden and
 Ic.psiz turned away, so it left the Scharnhorst and the Gnesenau to fight a duel with us. After the German small
 cruisers left. the Scharnhorst turned
 around and opened fire on us; so did the
 Gneisenau and they shot fiendishly we'll We went on hammering away for
 sometime, getting closer and closer, and
 they were hitting us pretty badly. I
 thought one foremast had gone once. l The admiral and I were half way up so as to get a good view. One of the | legs of the mast was shot away. Shell l fire is unpleasant, to put 1t mildly Ex
 ploding shells, when they hit the ship, are worse, as one wonders how many
 she will stand The admiral was won. derfully cool and collected, and I bobbed
 my head at every shell, and got a stir
 neck from doing 1t. Well, we turned
 then, and they turned, too; but it threw
 their fire off. the shell hitting the ship and bursting, splinters flying, and the ship catching fire here and there, and
 the awful din, all rather upsetting to 1 the nerves. They turned again. so off we had to go after them and at it again; then the Scharnhorst suddenly
 heeled over and went down bow first
 her CT zines still going, colors flying | and guns firing.
 | NThe Gneisenau hesitated or seemed
 to, as she passed her fgship. We werc
 still shooting at them. and then she came on, hammer and tongs; still we
 went on till p. m., when she turned right around and ceased firing She still had her colors flying, so we went
 on till I reported to the admiral that
 all her men were assembling on the
 forecastle and she was turning over.
 Away she went, and some 300 were left
 swimming and hanging on to the wreck