The naval element in the war, however, seemed at least as important as the military; and here the signs were promising. It was true that extensive preparations against a raid had been made in the last week of November, though little was said of them in the Press; and also that the Admiralty had notified (Dec. 4) that lighthouses and buoys in the Channel on the east of a line drawn from Selsey Bill to Cape Barfleur, might be altered or withdrawn, and signals in this area changed or discontinued, without notice, and had specified stations where pilots could be obtained for the ports or areas affected--arrangements probably motived by the activity of German submarines off Havre (p. 245); and that the German merchant cruiser _Berlin_, which had run into Trondhjem short of coal and had been interned there, was believed to have been laying oceanic mines. But these were only temporary inconveniences; and the country was inspirited (Dec. 10) by the news of a great German naval defeat off Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, on December 8. Vice-Admiral Sir F. Sturdee, who had recently been Chief of Staff at the Admiralty, and had been in London at the time of the action off Chile (p. 226), had left Devonport (as afterwards transpired) about November 15, and with a squadron of six cruisers, the _Kent_, _Carnarvon_, _Cornwall_, _Glasgow_, _Bristol_ and _Macedonia_, the latter a converted P. and O. liner, and the battle cruisers _Inflexible_ and _Invincible_, had arrived at Port Stanley (where they met the _Canopus_) on December 7 to coal, before searching for the German squadron. Next day this squadron approached Port Stanley, intending, it was said, to occupy it as a coaling station. It consisted of the _Scharnhorst_, _Gneisenau_, and three small cruisers, the _Leipzig_, _Dresden_, and _Nürnberg_, with a merchant cruiser, the _Prinz Eitel Fritz_, and two transports. On their approach the _Canopus_ opened fire; the other British ships at once came out, chased the Germans for nearly six hours, and then engaged them. The battle cruisers, assisted by the _Carnarvon_, concentrated their fire, first on Admiral von Spee's ship, the _Scharnhorst_, which sank, refusing to cease firing, about 4 P.M.; next on the _Gneisenau_, which sank two hours afterwards. The German cruisers had meanwhile diverged southwards; but the _Glasgow_ overtook the _Leipzig_, and, with the _Cornwall_, sank her, after some hours' fighting, at 9.15 P.M.; the _Kent_, meanwhile, came up with the _Nürnberg_, and sank her about 7.30 P.M.; while her crew were being picked up, the _Dresden_ and _Prinz Eitel Fritz_ got away. The _Bristol_ and the _Macedonia_ sank the two transports or supply ships, the _Baden_ and _Santa Ysabel_, which had gone off to the west. The _Dresden_ was reported shortly afterwards at Punta Arenas, Straits of Magellan, but had not been heard of again by the end of the year. Some 2,000 Germans were lost, and less than a dozen British.