I would also note that the Kormoran's life boats were all shot up except for the two steel ones that they were able to retrieve from the hold and launch.

When the battle began the ships were said to be about a 1000 yards apart and certainly the Germans would have let fly with everything they had, the main guns as well as their smaller caliber weapons (from THE SECRET RAIDERS, p. 225):

The cruiser's speed fell, while the Kormoran, with her 37 mm anti-tank gun and the 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, swept her decks and prevented her from manning her torpedo tubes and anti-aircraft guns.

It seems likely this was when the lifeboats were holed.

Charley Noble