For several months British warships in the South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans sought in vain for the German cruiser Dresden, one of the German squadron defeated off the Falkland Islands by Admiral Sturdee in December, when she was the only German vessel to escape. On February she sank the British ship Conway Castle off Corral in the South Pacific, and on March 14 she was caught near Juan Fernandez Island by the British cruisers Glasgow and Kent and the auxiliary cruiser Orama. An action ensued and after five minutes' fighting the Dresden hauled down her flag. She was much damaged and set on fire, and after she had been burning for some time her magazine exploded and she sank. The crew were saved. Fifteen badly wounded Germans were landed at Valparaiso, and the remainder of the crew were taken on board the auxiliary cruiser Orama as prisoners of war. The Dresden was a sister ship of the famous Emden, and was commissioned in October, 1907. In the spring of 1914 the Dresden was on the Caribbean station, and was lying off Tampico when the American forces captured Vera Cruz. Later on in the summer the Dresden was the vessel on which Victoriano Huerta, upon abandoning Mexico, traveled from Puerta to Jamaica. Upon the outbreak of the war the Dresden was still stationed in Central American waters, and for a time was hunted by the British and French cruisers in the North Atlantic. She steamed south, however, and after sinking the British steamer Hyades and the Holmwood off the coast of Brazil, respectively, on August 16 and 26, went through the Strait of Magellan and joined Admiral Count Von Spee's fleet in the southern Pacific. The sinking of the Dresden left at large on the high seas, so far as was known, only the German cruiser Karlsruhe, last reported as operating in the West Indies, and the auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm, which was still raiding commerce in the South Atlantic. THE FALL OF PKZEMYSL On March 22 the long siege of Przemysl, the formidable Galician fortress that had been called the "key to the Austrian empire," ended with the surrender of the city to the Russians. The siege stands as the fifth longest in 136 years, having lasted 185 days, surpassed in duration only by the sieges of Gibraltar, Sebastopol, Vicksburg, Richmond and Port Arthur. The news of the Austrians' surrender was the most important that had come from the eastern front in weeks. For six months the stronghold had withstood assault, remaining a constant menace in the rear of the Russian advance in Galicia. From 120,000 to 150,000 Russians had been held in the neighborhood by the necessity of masking the fortress. Numerous efforts had been made to reach the beleaguered city by relieving armies, but each in turn proved unavailing, though for a time in December it appeared likely that a combined German and Austrian army would succeed in raising the siege.