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But Ajax and Achilles turned out to be meat by no means. With spectacular coordination they kept each other smoked while driving in for bite after bite. They hurt the Spee, and badly. Some of her guns were silenced—one 5.9 turret tilted. Captain Langsdorff ordered his vessel to the nearest haven, Montevideo.
All the way in they fought, ten and one-half hours more. Within full sight of the headland called Punta del Este, where Uruguayans gathered in crowds as if to watch a pelota match, Ajax and Achilles craftily slipped around Spee inshore of her, leaving the enemy silhouetted in the east by the reflected light of the setting sun, themselves under shore's gloom. Just before dark there were two sharp clashes, and it was evidently in one of those that Spee suffered a final disaster: A hit at the forefoot, at bow and waterline, so that as she went through the sea she shipped water. At last night fell, Spee limped away, turned about, ingloriously backed into Montevideo and wearily dropped her anchor. She was out and all but down.
Captain Langsdorff called up the 62 captives, and as he set them free (under parole not to give away naval secrets), said to them: "The cruisers made a gallant fight. When people fight like that, personal enmity is lost."
Battle shifted from shells and smoke screens to words and laws. How long should Uruguay allow the Spee to stay? Articles 14 and 17 of The Hague Convention of 1907: A belligerent ship may remain in a neutral port only 24 hours, unless to repair damages affecting seaworthiness; under no circumstances may she repair armaments.
Uruguayan officials went aboard, found Spee's seaworthiness impaired, granted a 72-hour stay. Spee took on oxygen welding torches and steel plates and went to work. There was sad work to do, too. Sixty wounded men were treated: two went ashore to hospital. Thirty-six bodies were put into swastika-draped coffins, carried ashore, buried far from home.
Aboard the Exeter as she limped off toward the British base of Port Stanley* in the Falkland Islands, 1,000 miles to the south, were 61 dead men, and 23 wounded. Commodore Harwood was notified by radio that he had been knighted and promoted to Rear Admiral. Ajax and Achilles got off comparatively lightly: between them only eleven dead and eight wounded.
A diplomatic storm raged. Germans furiously charged the use of mustard gas, then dropped the charge. American Governments helplessly talked over what to do about this violation of their 300-mile neutral zone. Germany accused Uruguay of not allowing enough time for repairs.
Outside the mouth of the Rio de la Plata where it spews its yellow silt, the Ajax and Achilles waited exultantly for the deadline. Reinforcements came up fast. The much-disputed aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the battle cruiser Renown put in at
Rio to refuel—evidently on their way to Montevideo. The 31,100-ton battleship Barham, and the French battleship Dunkergue—it and the Renown two of five Allied ships which can both outrun and outgun German pocket battleships—and the 10,000-ton cruiser Cumberland were rumored to be waiting just over the horizon.
The Spec's sister Admiral Scheer and German Submarines were also rumored on their way.