Lying in the harbor was the Russian cruiser Jemchug and three French destroyers and a gunboat.  The watch on the Russian ship questioned her, and was told by the wireless operator on the Emden that she was the Yarmouth returning to anchor.  By this ruse the German ship was enabled to come within 600 yards of the Russian ship before the false funnel was discovered.  Fire immediately spurted from the Russian guns, but a torpedo from the Emden struck the Jemchug’s engine room and made it impossible for her crew to get ammunition to her guns.  Von Mueller poured steel into her from a distance of 250 yards with terrible effect.  The Russian ship’s list put many of her guns out of action, and she was unable to deliver an effective reply.  Another torpedo from the Emden exploded her magazine.  Fifteen minutes after the firing of the first shot the Russian had gone to the bottom.

Von Mueller now put the prow of the Emden to sea again, for he feared that both the Yarmouth and the French cruiser Dupleix had by then been summoned by wireless.  Luck was with him.  Half an hour after leaving the harbor he sighted a ship flying a red flag, which showed him at once that she was carrying a cargo of powder.  He badly needed the ammunition, and he prepared to capture her.  But this operation was interrupted by a mirage, which caused the small French destroyer Mosquet to appear like a huge battleship.  When he discovered the truth, Von Mueller closed with the Frenchman, who came to the rescue of the Glenturret, the powder ship.  Destroyer and cruiser closed for a fight, the former trying to get close enough to make work with torpedoes possible, but the long range of the Emden’s guns prevented this, and the Mosquet was badly damaged by having her engine room hit.  Soon she was in a bad way, and Von Mueller ordered his guns silenced, thinking the destroyer would now give up the fight.  But the Frenchman was valiant and refused to do so; he let go with two torpedoes which did not find their mark, and was immediately subjected to a withering fire, which caused his ship to sink, bow first.

One of the destroyers which had been in the harbor now came out to take issue with the Emden, but it was the business of the latter to continue destroying merchant ships and not to run the risk of having her career ended by a warship, so she immediately put off for the Indian Ocean.  A storm which then came up permitted her to make a better escape.

It was not until the 9th of November that the world at large heard more of her, and it proved to be the last day of her reign of terror.  There was a British wireless and cable station on the Cocos (Keeling) Isles, southwest of Java, and Von Mueller had determined to interrupt the communication maintained there connecting India, Australia, and South Africa.  Forty men and three officers, with three machine guns, were detailed by him as a landing party to destroy instruments and cut the cables.  But such a thing had been partially forestalled by the British authorities, who had set up false cable ends.  These were destroyed by the deceived Germans.  When the Emden had first made her appearance the news had been sent out by the wireless operator on shore, not knowing what ships would pick up his calls.