 The East Asia Squadron consisted of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the light cruisers Emden , Nürnberg , and Leipzig . At the time , Nürnberg was returning from the west coast of the United States , where Leipzig had just replaced her , and Emden was still in Tsingtao . Spee recalled his ships to consolidate his forces ; Nürnberg arrived on 6 August and the three cruisers plus their colliers moved to Pagan Island in the Marianas , at that time a German colony . Emden and the liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich , which had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser , joined the squadron there on 12 August . The four cruisers , accompanied by Prinz Eitel Friedrich and several colliers , then departed the central Pacific , bound for Chile . On 13 August , Commodore Karl von Müller , captain of the Emden , persuaded Spee to detach his ship as a commerce raider . On 14 August , the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands . While en route across the Pacific , Spee relaxed formalities aboard his ships , integrating the messes for officers and non @-@ commissioned and engineering officers . 
