[CHAPTER VII]
CONCENTRATION
"And Drake growled, ...
... 'So, lest they are not too slow
To catch us, clear the decks. God, I would like
To fight them!'"
—Alfred Noyes (Drake).
Several disquieting wireless messages were received by the British warships on the east coast of South America, giving garbled and unreliable accounts of the Coronel action. It was not till November 5th that a statement which appeared to be fairly authoritative, in spite of its German origin, was received from Valparaiso. It said that the Monmouth was sunk and that the Good Hope had probably shared her fate; no mention was made of the Canopus, Glasgow, or Otranto.
The command in these waters now devolved upon Rear-Admiral Stoddart (flying his flag in the Carnarvon), who was still busily engaged in the search for the Karlsruhe. His ships had been operating over a wide area extending from the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro to the northward of St. Paul's Rocks and the Rocas, and thence to the westward along the north coast of South America. This otherwise fruitless search achieved one notable result in compelling the Karlsruhe to abandon her system of obtaining supplies through German storeships coming from Pernambuco, as that port was kept under rigid observation. She was thus forced to leave the trade route between Great Britain and South America for longer periods in order to meet her consort, the armed liner Kronprinz Wilhelm, who now became a link between her and her sources of supply in Central America. There was, in consequence, a marked falling off at this period in the number of her captures.