the loss of fifteen hundred
men. The _Aboukir_, having been hit first, was closed by the _Hogue_
and _Cressy_ in order to save her crew. But they were themselves
torpedoed before they could either see their enemy or save their
friends.

Meanwhile the only German squadron overseas had been doing some
daringly clever work under its first-class admiral, Graf von Spee.
Leaving his worst vessels at Tsing-tao (the German port in China which
was taken by the Japanese and British later on) he sailed into the vast
Pacific with his seven best. On his way south he sent the _Koenigsberg_
to raid the east coast of Africa and the _Emden_ to raid the Indian
Ocean. The _Koenigsberg_ did a good deal of damage to merchantmen and
sank the much weaker British light cruiser _Pegasus_, which was caught
refitting at Zanzibar and was pounded into scrap iron with the loss of
half her crew. But when the _Koenigsberg_ made off, probably fearing
the arrival of some avenging British, the _Pegasus_ still had her
colours flying, not from the mast, for that was shot away, but in the
steadfast hands of two undauntable Marines.

The _Emden_ was the most wonderful raider of modern times; and her
captain, von Mueller, behaved much better than the general run of
Germans. Arrived in the Indian Ocean he bagged six ships in five days,
sending all the crews into Calcutta in the sixth after sinking the
rest. But he soon beat this by twice taking no less than seven ships
in a single day! Then he dashed into Penang and sank the unready
Russian cruiser _Jemchug_ on his way in and the ready little French
destroyer _Mousquet_ on his way out. The _Mousquet_ hadn't the ghost
of a chance. But she went straight for the _Emden_ and fought till she
sank; her heroic captain, with both legs blown off, commanding her to
the very last gasp. By this time, however, the net was closing in; and
twelve days later the big Australian cruiser _Sydney_ finished the
_Emden_ on Cocos Island Reef.

Meanwhile von Spee's five cruisers had been pressed south by the clever
network of Japanese warships working over the vast area of the Pacific
under the orders of a staff officer watching every move from his desk
at Tokyo. Sir Christopher Cradock was waiting to catch the Germans.
But his slow battleship _Canopus_ had not yet joined him when (November
1), with only three cruisers and one armed merchantman, he attacked
them off Coronel on the coast of Chili; though they were very