The Battle Of Coronel

The Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile, took place on 1st November. Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty was convinced that Cradock had orders not to engage the Germans without the protection of Canopus. However Canopus was slow and although she was steaming towards the British fleet at 15 knots, Cradock thought she was travelling at 12.5 knots. She had two colliers with her and at 6.18 pm Cradock increased his speed to 17 knots and radioed Canopus with a message "I am about to attack the enemy now"

At 7.04 pm the Germans opened fire at a range of 12,000 yards. The Scharnhorst hit the Good Hope with its third salvo and rendered the fore 9.2 inch gun useless. It continued to fire four salvoes a minute. By 7.23 pm the range was 6,600 yards. At 7.53 pm, the Good Hope was shattered by an explosion which produced a column of flame that rose over 200 feet above her decks.

Canopus had intercepted a message from Glasgow to the Good Hope reporting the enemy in sight. She increased to full speed and dispatched her colliers to Juan Fernandez and headed northwards in the hope that she would arrive in time to engage the enemy. At about 9.00 pm she received a signal from Glasgow that it was feared that the Good Hope and Monmouth were lost and the fleet scattered. Canopus turned around, picked up her colliers and made back for the Magellan Straits via Smyth's Channel, probably the first battleship to make use of them, a great navigational credit to her.

Cradock perished along with 1,600 men.

Rear-Admiral Stoddart was now in command in the South Atlantic, on the Carnarvon and he decided to go south to Montevideo to meet the remainder of the scattered fleet.

It was just before Coronel, that a great management change was taking place in the Navy. Prince Louis of Battenberg was being hounded out of office as First Sea Lord because he was German born. He had resigned on 29th October and was replaced by Lord Jackie Fisher, a formidable old gentleman who had been in the post from 1904-1910 and who had been in charge of the Navy overseeing its complete transformation into the greatest fleet in the world.

On the 6th November, Canopus was back in the Falklands but was ordered go to Montevideo but was called back and arrived in Port Stanley on 13th November. Canopus could not get a reply from the Wireless Station in Port Stanley and thought that the harbour had been captured by the Germans. The islanders thought that they were the enemy. The island had at that time a population of about 1,000, mainly Scottish crofters.

Finally, Canopus was ordered back to Port Stanley to act as guardship. Captain Grant took the ship through the outer bay and into the land locked harbour itself and finding that anchors and warps could not hold the ship, he grounded the ship so that her broadside could fire over a low neck of land and into the required beaten zone. The upper decks of the ship were daubed with all colours of the rainbow, an observation and gunnery control post were set up, twelve-pounder guns were sent ashore and mounted in three batteries.

Admiral von Spee's Battle Squadron 26th November 1914

Page 1

Page 3