The British commander ordered the former
two to get away by making speed, but the officer in charge of the
_Glasgow_, paying no heed to the order, kept in the fight.
Dusk was then coming on and the _Glasgow_ sought to take advantage
of it by getting between the German ships and the limping _Monmouth_,
concealing the latter from them with her smoke. But the Germans
had now come to within 4,500 yards. To escape possible attack from
torpedoes the German ships spread out their line, but perceiving
that such a danger was not present, they again closed in to finish
the crippled British ships. All of the German ships now went for
the _Glasgow_, and she had to desert the _Monmouth_, which first
sailed northward, in bad condition, and later made an attempt to
run ashore at Santa Maria, but was unable to do so.
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.
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