Sturdee's ships did not sortie from the harbour until 09:50, although they could see the retreating German ships on the southwest horizon. The "Invincible"s, fresh out of dry dock, had a advantage over Spee's ships, which all had fouled bottoms that limited their speeds to no more than . The light cruiser lagged behind the other ships and "Inflexible" opened fire when the range dropped to at 12:55. "Invincible" opened fire shortly afterward and both ships began straddling "Leipzig" as the range closed to . At 13:20, Spee ordered his squadron to separate and ordered his light cruisers to turn to the southwest, while his armoured cruisers turned north east to cover their retreat. The German ships opened fire at 13:30 and scored their first hit at 13:44 when struck "Invincible", though the shell burst harmlessly on the belt armour. Both sides fired rapidly during the first half-hour of the engagement, before Sturdee opened up the distance to put his ships outside the effective range of the German guns. British gunnery was very poor, scoring only four hits out of 210 rounds fired. The primary cause was the smoke from the guns and funnels, since the British were upwind of the Germans, though one gun of "Invincible"s 'A' turret jammed at 13:42 and was out of action for thirty minutes.