The Renown herself, whose ram had caused the fearful disaster, had not escaped without severe injury in the collision, which had shattered the mighty floating fortress in all its joints.  The two first fore compartments, as the bulkheads did not hold together, had filled with water.  This caused the vessel to heel over; her value as a fighting instrument was thereby sensibly diminished.

Thus the first great catastrophe in the battle was caused, not by the power of the enemy, but by the clumsy manoeuvring of a friendly ship.  This naturally caused many of the spectators, deeply affected by the sinking of the magnificent vessel and her gallant crew, to ask themselves whether the great perfection attained in the construction of modern ships of war was not to a great extent counterbalanced by the defects that were combined with the increasing size and fighting strength of these gigantic ironclads.  No ship of the line, no frigate, not even the little gunboat of earlier times could have disappeared from the line of battle so speedily and without leaving a trace behind as the Formidable, built of mighty dimensions and equipped with all the appliances of naval technique.  No doubt her armour-plate and steel turrets would have been able successfully to resist a hail of the heaviest projectiles, but a misunderstood steering order had been sufficient to send her to the bottom.  Neither the double bottoms nor the division of the bulkheads, which should have prevented the inrush of an excessive amount of water, had been able to avert the fate which threatens every modern ironclad when severely damaged below the water-line.  The wooden ship of former times might have been riddled like a sieve without sinking.  But the stability of a modern ironclad could be endangered by a single leak, whether caused by a torpedo or a ram, to such an extent that the gigantic mass of iron would be drawn down into the depths by its own weight in a few minutes.

A running fire now went on at a distance of about 2,000 yards, in which the superiority of the Krupp guns was as clearly manifested as the admirable training of the German artillerists, in which the English were far inferior.  Certainly, the German ships also suffered various injuries, but no serious damage had as yet occurred.

The three torpedoed and helpless English warships offered especially favourable targets to the German cruisers.  The latter, taking up positions at a suitable distance, kept up such a heavy fire upon the vessels, which could scarcely move, that their surrender was inevitable.  But before deciding on this, the English offered an heroic resistance, and many of their shots took effect.  The conning tower of the Friedrich Karl was pierced by a shell, and the brave commander with those around him found a glorious soldier’s death.  Other more or less serious injuries were sustained, and it was almost a miracle that no vital damage was done to any part of the ships’ hulls.