The defeat of the British squadron back in the first week of November had sorely tried the patience of the British public, and the admiralty felt the necessity of retrieving faith in the navy.  Von Spee was still master of the waters near the Horn, and till his ships had again been met the British could not boast of being rulers of the waves.  Consequently Admiral Fisher detailed the two battle cruisers Invincible and Inflexible to go to the Falkland Islands.  They left England November 11, 1914, and on the outward journey met with and took along the light cruisers Carnarvon, Kent, and Cornwall, the second-class cruiser Bristol, and the converted liner Macedonia.  The Canopus and the Glasgow, now repaired, all joined the squadron, which was commanded by Admiral Sturdee.  The vessels coaled at Stanley, Falkland Islands, and while so engaged on December 8 were warned by a civilian volunteer watcher on a near-by hill that two strange vessels had made their appearance in the distance.  British naval officers identified them and other vessels which were coming into view as the ships of Von Spee’s squadron, the one which had been victorious off Coronel.

During the interval that had elapsed since that engagement these German ships had not been idle.  Von Spee knew that the Glasgow had gone to the Falklands and that there were important wireless stations there, but he put off going after those prizes and picked up others.  The Nuernberg had cut communication between Banfield and Fanning Islands.  Two British trading ships had fallen victims to the Dresden, and four more had met the same end at the hands of the Leipzig.  For coal and other supplies Von Spee had been relying on the Chilean ports, but now came trouble between him and the port authorities, for England was accusing the South American nation of acting without regard to neutrality.  It was for this reason that Von Spee turned southward to take the Falkland Islands.  The world at large, and of course Von Spee, had no knowledge of the ships which had set out from Plymouth for the Falklands on the eleventh of the month, so he approached in full expectation of making not only a raid but for occupation.  He knew that he would have to exchange shots with the Glasgow and perhaps some small ships, and he believed the islands weakly defended by forts, but there was nothing in that to defer his attack.  The result—­the lookout near Stanley had reported the oncoming warships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, followed by the rest of the German squadron.  German guns were trained on the wireless station, and great was the surprise of the unfortunate Von Spee and his officers when there was heard the booming of guns which they knew immediately must be mounted on warships larger than their own.  Their scouting had been defective, and the presence of the Inflexible and Invincible had till then not been discovered.  They then reasoned that these were the guns of the Canopus—­a critical and fatal error.