The Battle of Coronel

[The Sailor]

The World War I naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

The Royal Navy, with assistance from other Allied navies, had spent the early months of the war searching for Spee's German East Asia Squadron.

Patrolling in the area at that time was Admiral Cradock's West Indies Squadron, consisting of two armoured cruisers, HMS Good Hope (Cradock's flagship) and HMS Monmouth, the modern light cruiser HMS Glasgow, and a converted liner, HMS Otranto.

Cradock's fleet was by no means modern or particularly strong, and most of the crew were inexperienced. Spee had a formidable force of five vessels, led by the armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau plus a further three light cruisers, all modern ships.

Cradock, aware that his ships were outgunned by Spee's, had been waiting in the hope of reinforcements. The Admiralty dispatched the armoured cruiser HMS Defence and the elderly battleship HMS Canopus, the latter sent from London. Neither reached Cradock before battle commenced on 1 November 1914.

In the fine traditions of the Royal Navy, Cradock chose to stay and fight, however he did direct Otranto to flee.

Spee maneuvered his faster vessels out of Cradock's firing range; at sunset with the setting sun clearly silhouetting Cradock's fleet, he began to shell the latter's force; Scharnhorst's third salvo crippled the Good Hope. It sank at 19:57 after being raked by accurate German gunfire and went down with all hands, including Admiral Cradock.
The badly damaged Monmouth sank shortly thereafter at 21:18 hours, while Glasgow was able to get clear and re-unite with Otranto.

There were no survivors of either ship (1,654 officers and men). Glasgow and Otranto both escaped (the former suffering five hits but no casualties). Spee's own fleet suffered little damage, only three sailors wounded, and sailed to Valparaíso to a rapturous welcome from the local German population.

Photo1 below shows the German Vice Admiral von Spee's cruiser squadron leaving Valparaiso, Chile, on the 3 November 1914, following the Battle of Coronel. The German ships are in the distance, with the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the lead, followed by light cruiser Nürnberg.

Photo 2 and 3 are HMS Good Hope.
Photo 4 is HMS Monmouth

[Batstiger]

I'm not very good on the old key-board ( just two fingers ) that's why I like to make my contribution to the threads with pictures.
Here we have 2 of the Defence, 2 of the Canopus and one each of the Monmouth and Good Hope.

[The Sailor]

Probably been holding a cold glass too long and your fingers have stiffened Bob.
Welcome to Tuesday morning.
Great era for ships wasn't it. Funny how they all look much the same.

[tim lewin]

just completed reading Graf Spee's Raiders which is a fascinating and complete historical account of all of the activities of Graf Spee's sqadron including that of the Emden and Konigsberg. The wrecks of these last two still exist, Emden on Cocos-Keeling and Konigsberg up a river on the East coast of Africa. I read this in parallel with a first-hand acount of the cruise of the Emden written by one of her officers at the end of the war, found in a junk shop gfor 10p. These ships actually did little real damage but they tied down an enormous volume of resources to hunt down and severely damaged the public appreciation of the invincability of the RN. The rise of the U-boat as the offensive weapon of choice was an infinitely worse threat. The failure by the Admiralty to re-introduce convoys at the beginning of the war was the principle behind the success of the cruiser squadron.

As an aside, divers found yesterday the wreck of a first war U-boat of the west coast of scotland sunk in 1915 by raqmming by the destroyer Ariel. How about some pictures of these two you pic hounds!! (U12, was the boat)
tim

[herakles]

Come on Batstiger you can't resist that challenge!!!!!!

[Ed Roms]

Readers,

I have a photo of the SMS Gneisenau (1906-1914) and of its crew. My grandfather was aboard. I am hoping that someone may be able to provide information about the ship's cruises or any other information about it. I would greatly appreciate hearing more. Thanks!!

[herakles]

Welcome Ed to the forum. I hope you stay and enjoy the place!

Do you mean the German cruiser? The one sunk at the Battle of Coronel in 1914?

If so then look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Gneisenau

Let us know please.

[The Sailor]

Hi Ed. Glad you could join us.
Some time back I put up a thread dedicated to the Battle of Coronel.
Here it is. Perhaps you would like to post here. Tell me if you would like me to merge your request post with this thread.

http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=740

There you go Ed. Continue on from here.

[Ed Roms]

Apparently, also on the SMS Gneisenau was the Crown Prince. I believe that may mean Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Augustus, Crown Prince of the German Empire and Prussia. The Crown Prince made a trip to India in 1912.

Other photo of the USS Saratoga. This might date the cruise in photos to 1911 or so.

[The Sailor]

Ed, see also a follow on post from earlier on that is very pertinent to your quest.
Graeme

http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=757

[Commodore Armiger]

It would have been difficult for the Crown Prince of Prussia to have been serving on SMS Gneisenau at Coronel and the Falkland Islands as he was at the time commanding 5th German Army on the Western Front, and lived to a ripe old age (d 1951) unlike all but 176 of Gneisenau's crew who perished in the South Atlantic. There were many other German Princes both of the Prussian, Bavarian, Hanoverian and other German monarchies. Finding out if any of them was serving on Gneisenau may be a challenge.

[BB60]

I remember reading about this battle in one of my books when I was a boy. I always felt that Craddock was in a no-win situation. The Canopus brought bigger guns, but wasn't she substantially slower (10knots max) than the rest of the squadron and would really been of little help?

Looking at the casemate guns on the ships. I'll bet they were of little use, except in calm seas.

[The Sailor]

Absolutely correct Commodore. I think Ed was right about the Crown Prince being on board earlier and didn't mean to portray that he was still there during 1914.

[Ed Roms]

Thanks, Sailor. My apologies for the lack of clarity. I was referring to an earlier cruise of the SMS Gneisenau. We have photos of the crown prince on the ship and on shore in India--Bombay. Yesterday, I found this website that refers to the crown prince's trip to India in 1912: http://www.regiments.org/biography/royals/1882wilG.htm

I do need to verify the name of the man in the photos. Will work on that. Thanks to all.

[Stan.J]

Tim, Only managed to find the Ariel.

[tomsam]

this link may be of interesthttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/7187862.stm

[Batstiger]

German Vice Admiral Von Spey's cruiser squadron.

Leaving Valparaiso, Chile, circa 3rd November, 1914, following the battle of Coronel. The German ships are in the distance, with the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the lead followed by the cruiser Nurnberg. The Chilean Navy warships in the middle distance include (from left to right): cruisers Esmerelda, O'Higgins and Blanco Encalda and old battleship Capitan Prat.

The other ship being SMS Scharnhorst.

[herakles]

Great pics Bob.

Is there any event you don't have pictures of?

[qprdave]

We should remember the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of Coronel today

This is how The Times reported it

Taken from The Times Archive

[emason]

Thank you Dave for your timely reminder. Here is a brief summary of Sir Christopher Cradock's career.

"Sir Christopher George Francis Maurice Cradock (1862-1914) fought and lost an unequal battle with German Admiral Graf von Spee on 1 November 1914 at Coronel(near Chile), losing his own life in the process and sowing seeds of doubt as to the ability of Britain's Royal Navy to rule the seas during the initial months of the war.

Cradock was born on 2 July 1862 in Hartforth, North Yorkshire, and entered the Royal Navy in 1875. In 1878 Cradock was present at the British occupation of Cyprus, serving as a midshipman.

Having served on the Royal Yacht Cradock was made commander of Alacrity, upon which he saw action with the storming of the Taku Forts on 17 July 1900, serving with distinction. He subsequently directed Allied forces during the relief of Tientsin and, later, Siku.

Cradock was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1910, by which time he had established himself as the author of numerous works. Created KVCO in 1912, Cradock was appointed to the command of the North American and West Indies station the following year, 1913.

With the declaration of war in August 1914 Cradock was given responsibility for protecting the North American coast from St. Lawrence to Brazil; and, from October with the pursuit of Spee's fleet of commerce raiders with his own somewhat old and inferior 4th Squadron.

Having located Spee's force, Cradock engaged them in battle but was hopelessly outfought, with Spee able to call upon Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig, Dresden and Nurnberg. Within two hours his force was greatly reduced, including both main ships Good Hope (the flagship) and Monmouth, with some 1,600 men drowned."

There is a memorial to him in York Minster, and another in the small parish church of Gilling West - a village near Richmond, North Yorkshire, about one mile from Hartforth his birthplace.

[emason]

I forgot to include this photograph in my last post.

60718

[ivorthediver]

Thanks Dave and Bill very good and informative thread which I enjoyed reading

Regards Ivor

[emason]

Since I mentioned Sir Christopher's memorial in St. Agatha's Church in Gilling West I thought I would go there and pay my respects.

So you can share my experience, here are a few photographs.

60757 60758 60759 60760

The sword and scabbard one can see at the bottom of the main tablet are real. I assume they belonged to him.

[John Odom]

In that fight, the RN had no real chance of victory.

[RonHowell]

I was very pleased to see this thread whilst trawling through the forum.
I am a founding member of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group currently diving on potentially the oldest shipwreck in the world. Adjacent to this Bronze Age site is the Barbary Pirate vessel we discovered in 1995 finding a hoard of Morrocan gold. Also on the sea bed we found a modern brick then lots of them. Eventually on the outer edge of our protected diving area we found a mound of them, then an anchor then a winch. Under the winch was a piece of pottery with half a word embossed upon it, 'mouth'. I decided to do some research and eventually found the wreck was a small coastal Ketch the 'Lord Napier' carrying a cargo of bricks from Exmouth to Kingsbridge, she sprung a leak and despite the two crew members trying to save her by chucking bricks over the side she sank in April 1911.
After much research into her history which started when she was built in 1868 I chartered her very interesting life from Ramsgate fishing boat to an old coastal work horse.
Her last owners came from Topsham, one of them a Rupert Henry Trout was a Chief Petty Officer and he lost his life on HMS Monmouth during the Battle of Coronel. His son Wallace Henry Trout also lost his life at sea when he was killed in action on HMS Bonaventure in March 1941.
The Trout family still live and trade in Topsham and were able to help with my research. In my Power Point presentation of this little Ketch I dwell on the Battle of Coronel because it brings up such names as 'Winston Churchill', 'Sir Christopher Craddock', Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau, and tells of the first Naval battle of the 1st World War and its consequences.
All this from one brick found on the sea bed.

Ron

[Dreadnought]

Thread merged with existing thread to keep everything together about this great topic.