The dispositions of the English Admiral were designed to meet one contingency only—an attempt by the Germans to pass the Straits of Otranto and to join the Austrians; he had evidently no suspicion that they had been ordered to Constantinople and took no steps to bar their way to the east. The handling of his two ships by Admiral Souchon was masterly. Until the latest minute he masked his intentions and completely outmanœuvred his powerful English opponents. Issuing from Messina on the afternoon of August 6th, he made towards the north-east as if about to hazard the passage to the Adriatic, and the small _Gloucester_, which most gallantly kept touch with far superior forces—she was some two knots slower than the _Goeben_, though rather faster than the _Breslau_—fell back before him and called up the battle cruisers on her wireless. Souchon did not attempt to interfere with the _Gloucester_, for she was doing exactly what he desired of her. He kept upon his course to the north-east until darkness came down, and then swinging suddenly eight points to starboard, pointed straight for Cape Matapan far off to the south-east and called for full speed. Then and then only he gave the order to jam the _Gloucester’s_ wireless. He did not wholly succeed, the _Gloucester’s_ warning of his change of route got through to the battle cruisers, but they were too far away to interpose their bulky veto on the German plans. For two hours the German ships travelled at full speed, the _Goeben_ leading, and behind them trailed the gallant _Gloucester_, though she had nothing bigger in her armoury than two 6-inch guns, and could have been sunk by a single shell from the _Goeben’s_ batteries. Twice she overhauled the _Breslau_ and fired upon her, and twice the _Goeben_ had to fall back to the aid of her consort and drive away the persistent English captain. The gallantry of the _Gloucester_ alone redeems the event from being a bitter English humiliation. All the while she was vainly pursuing the German vessels the _Gloucester_ continued her calls for help. They got through, but the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ had seized too long a start. They were clear away for the Dardanelles and Constantinople, and were safe from effective pursuit.