She was still in that neighborhood when the war broke out, and was immediately sought after by British and French warships which were near by. She managed to get away from these pursuers and sank the British steamers _Hyades_ and _Holmwood_ off the Brazilian coast during the latter part of August, 1914. She then went south, rounded the Horn and joined the other ships under command of Admiral Von Spee, taking part in the battle off Coronel, on November 1, 1914. She remained with that squadron and took part in a second battle--that off the Falkland Islands--on December 8, 1914. When Admiral von Spee saw that he had little chance of winning the battle he gave orders that the lighter ships should leave the line and seek safety in flight. The _Dresden_ was one of the ships which escaped, to the chagrin of the British Admiral. She then turned "raider." Five days later, on December 13, 1914, she had appeared off Punta Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan, stopped at that port long enough to take on some provisions and put to sea again, with British and Japanese warships on her trail. She was too closely hunted to be able to sink many ships, but during the week of March 12, 1915, she sank the British steamer _Conway Castle_, off the coast of Chile, and took coal and provisions from the two German steamers _Alda_ and _Sierra Cordoba_. On March 14, 1915, she was sighted by the British cruisers _Glasgow_, _Kent_ and _Orama_ near Juan Fernandez Island. What then ensued is in doubt, owing to conflicting reports made by the senior British officer and by the captain of the German cruiser. The latter insisted that, seeing his ship was at the end of her career, he ordered his men to leave her and then blew her up. The former declared that shots were exchanged, that she was set afire and was otherwise badly damaged by the British fire. At any rate, she was destroyed, and all of her men were saved. It was estimated that the amount of damage she inflicted on allied trade amounted to $1,250,000. Thus at the end of March, 1915, only the _Karlsruhe_ and _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, of the eleven German warships that were detached from the main German fleet in the North Sea at the outbreak of the war, and of the few ships which slipped out of various ports as converted auxiliary cruisers, were still at large on the high seas. Naval activity in the northern waters of Europe did not abate. The British admiralty on March 25, 1915, had announced that the German submarine _U-29_, one of the most improved craft of the type in use, had been sunk. This loss was admitted by the German admiralty on April 7, 1915. It was a serious loss to the German navy, for its commander was Otto von Weddigen, he who, in the _U-9_, had sent the _Cressy_, _Aboukir_ and _Hogue_ to the bottom in September, 1914.