shortly after six o’clock off Coronel near the coast of Chile.  The Gneisenau was struck by a 9.2-inch shot from the Good Hope.  The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau picked the Good Hope as their first target, but finding that they could do no damage at that range and that they were safe from the fire of the British ship, they came to within 6,000 yards of her.  Her fire in reply was augmented by that of the Monmouth.  Excellent aim on the part of the Germans soon had the Good Hope out of action, and fire broke out aboard her.  Soon after general action her magazine exploded.

The Monmouth then received the brunt of the fire from the German ships, and came in for more than her share of the destructive fire, being put virtually out of action, and at the same time there occurred an explosion on board the Good Hope and she sank immediately, carrying Admiral Cradock to his death.

There remained of the British force only the Otranto—­a converted liner and not really a battleship of the line—­the Glasgow and the hopelessly disabled Monmouth to continue the fight with an efficient German force.  The British commander ordered the former two to get away by making speed, but the officer in charge of the Glasgow, paying no heed to the order, kept in the fight.

Dusk was then coming on and the Glasgow sought to take advantage of it by getting between the German ships and the limping Monmouth, concealing the latter from them with her smoke.  But the Germans had now come to within 4,500 yards.  To escape possible attack from 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