m
torpedoes the German ships spread out their line, but perceiving
that such a danger was not present, they again closed in to finish
the crippled British ships. All of the German ships now went for
the _Glasgow_, and she had to desert the _Monmouth_, which first
sailed northward, in bad condition, and later made an attempt to
run ashore at Santa Maria, but was unable to do so.

The inevitable "if" played its part in the battle. When the British
fleet first went after the Germans it had as one of its units the
battleship _Canopus_. But her speed was not up to that of the other
ships, and she fell far to their stern. By the time the action was
on she was too distant to take part in it. No attempt was made to
go together owing to the slowness of the battleship. The _Canopus_
was never in the action at all, being 150 miles astern. Had Cradock
not desired to he need not have taken on the action but retired
in the _Canopus_. The setting of the sun also played its part;
if daylight had continued some hours more the British squadron
might have held out till the _Canopus_ brought up, for the almost
horizontal rays of the sun were in the eyes of the German gunners.
But as it dropped below the watery horizon it left the British
ships silhouetted against a clear outline. The _Canopus_ did not
get into the fight, and the greatest concern of the _Glasgow_ as
she steamed off was to warn the British battleship to keep off,
for of less speed than the German ships, and outnumbered by them,
her appearance meant her destruction. The _Glasgow_, later joined
by the _Canopus_, arrived in battered condition at the Falkland
Islands. The _Monmouth_, after the main action was over, was found
and finished by the German squadron and went down. Seventy shots
were fired at her when she lay sinking, on fire and helpless, and
unable to fire her guns. Germany had evened the score in the second
battle between fleets.

The _Dresden_ after the Falkland action took refuge in Fiordes
of Terra del Fuego and after being there for a couple of months
proceeded to the head of the Island of Juan Fernandez where she
was found by the _Glasgow, Kent_ and auxiliary cruiser _Orama_
and was destroyed.

Most remarkable had been the career of the German third-class cruiser
_Nuernberg_, which had joined the other German ships that went to
make up the German squadron which fought in this battle off Coronel.
This vessel, on the day after Germany and England went to war