 To keep the German high command informed , on 8 September Spee detached Nürnberg to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries . Nürnberg returned with news of the Allied capture of German Samoa , which had taken place on 29 August . Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sailed to Apia to investigate the situation . Spee had hoped to catch a British or Australian warship by surprise , but upon his arrival on 14 September , he found no warships in the harbor . Spee decided against attacking the Allied troops ashore , since doing so would risk killing Samoans and damaging German property . On 22 September , Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron arrived at the French colony of Papeete . The Germans attacked the colony , and in the ensuing Battle of Papeete , they sank the French gunboat Zélée . The ships came under fire from French shore batteries but were undamaged . Fear of mines in the harbor prevented Spee from seizing the coal in the harbor . Spee then continued across the Pacific , passing through the Marquesas Islands , where his ships acquired supplies including fresh meat by barter , purchase , or confiscation . On 12 October , the squadron reached Easter Island , where it was reinforced by Leipzig , Dresden , and four more colliers . Spee 's ships were off the coast of Chile by 1 November , when he learned that the British cruiser Glasgow was moored in Coronel , ostensibly alone ; he decided to try to sink the ship . 
