The inevitable "if" played its part in the battle. When the British fleet first went after the Germans it had as one of its units the battleship _Canopus_. But her speed was not up to that of the other ships, and she fell far to their stern. By the time the action was on she was too distant to take part in it. No attempt was made to go together owing to the slowness of the battleship. The _Canopus_ was never in the action at all, being 150 miles astern. Had Cradock not desired to he need not have taken on the action but retired in the _Canopus_. The setting of the sun also played its part; if daylight had continued some hours more the British squadron might have held out till the _Canopus_ brought up, for the almost horizontal rays of the sun were in the eyes of the German gunners. But as it dropped below the watery horizon it left the British ships silhouetted against a clear outline. The _Canopus_ did not get into the fight, and the greatest concern of the _Glasgow_ as she steamed off was to warn the British battleship to keep off, for of less speed than the German ships, and outnumbered by them, her appearance meant her destruction. The _Glasgow_, later joined by the _Canopus_, arrived in battered condition at the Falkland Islands. The _Monmouth_, after the main action was over, was found and finished by the German squadron and went down. Seventy shots were fired at her when she lay sinking, on fire and helpless, and unable to fire her guns. Germany had evened the score in the second battle between fleets. The _Dresden_ after the Falkland action took refuge in Fiordes of Terra del Fuego and after being there for a couple of months proceeded to the head of the Island of Juan Fernandez where she was found by the _Glasgow_, _Kent_ and auxiliary cruiser _Orama_ and was destroyed. Most remarkable had been the career of the German third-class cruiser _Nuernberg_, which had joined the other German ships that went to make up the German squadron which fought in this battle off Coronel. This vessel, on the day after Germany and England went to war, was lying near Yap, an island in the Pacific, that had been, until captured by the Japanese, the wireless station of most importance to the Germans in the Pacific Ocean. She immediately, after being apprised that she was part of a navy engaged in a war, set sail and was not reported again until the 7th of September, when she appeared at Fanning Island, a cable station maintained by Britain, and from which cables run to Vancouver to the east and Australia to the west. Here she hid her identity by entering the harbor flying the tricolor of France and appearing as though she was making a friendly visit. Officials on the island, happy to think they would have such a visitor, saw two cutters leave the warship.