 On the morning of 6 December , Spee held a conference with the ship commanders aboard Scharnhorst to determine their next course of action . The Germans had received numerous fragmentary and contradictory reports of British reinforcements in the region ; Spee and two other captains favored an attack on the Falkland Islands to destroy the British wireless station there , while three other commanders argued that it would be better to bypass the islands and attack British shipping off Argentina . Spee 's opinion carried the day and the squadron departed for the Falkland Islands at 12 : 00 on 6 December . The ships arrived off the Falkland Islands two days later ; Gneisenau and Nürnberg were delegated for the attack . As they approached , observers aboard Gneisenau spotted smoke rising from Port Stanley , but assumed it was the British burning their coal stocks to prevent the Germans from seizing them . As they closed on the harbor , 30 @.@ 5 cm ( 12 @.@ 0 in ) shells from the elderly battleship Canopus , which had been beached as a guard ship , began to fall around the German ships , which prompted Spee to break off the attack . As Spee withdrew , Sturdee quickly got steam up in his ships and sortied to chase the Germans . 
