Admiralty to Rear-Admiral Cradock, H.M.S. “Good Hope.”
September 14, 5.50 p.m.
The Germans are resuming trade on West Coast of South America, and Scharnhorst and Gneisenau may very probably arrive on that coast or in Magellan Straits.
Concentrate a squadron strong enough to meet Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, making Falkland Islands your coaling base, and leaving sufficient force to deal with Dresden and Karlsruhe.
Defence is joining you from Mediterranean, and Canopus is now en route to Abrolhos.[[81]] You should keep at least one County class and Canopus with your flagship until Defence joins.
When you have superior force, you should at once search Magellan Straits with squadron, keeping in readiness to return and cover the River Plate, or, according to information, search as far as Valparaiso northwards, destroy the German cruisers, and break up the German trade.
You should search anchorage in neighbourhood of Egg Harbour and Golfo Nuevo....[[82]]
Two days later all uncertainties, and with them our anxieties, vanished, and news was received that both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had appeared off Samoa on the 14th September. There was nothing for them to hurt there. The empty roadstead mocked their power. The British flag flew on shore, and a New Zealand garrison far too strong for any landing party snarled at them from behind defences. Thus informed of the fate of their colony, the German cruisers put to sea after firing a few shells at the Government establishments.
A week later, the 22nd, they were at Papeete, which they bombarded, destroying half the town and sinking the little French gunboat Zélée which was in harbour. They left the same morning, steering on a Northerly course. We did not hear of this till the 30th. Then once again silence descended on the vast recesses of the Pacific.
We could now begin drawing our circles again from the beginning, and at any rate for several weeks we need not worry about these ships. Accordingly the Admiralty telegraphed to Admiral Cradock, on the 16th September, telling him the new situation and that he need not now concentrate his cruisers, but could proceed at once to attack German trade in the Straits of Magellan and on the Chilian coast.