"Glasgow" departed Coronel at 09:15 after having picked up the squadron's mail, and rendezvoused with the rest of the squadron four hours later. Cradock ordered his ships to form line abreast with a distance of between ships to maximise visibility at 13:50 and steered north at a speed of . At 16:17 "Leipzig" spotted "Glasgow", the easternmost British ship, to its west and she spotted "Leipzig"s funnel smoke three minutes later. At 17:10 Cradock ordered his ships to head for "Glasgow", the closest ship to the Germans. Once gathered together, he formed them into line astern, with "Good Hope" in the lead, steering southeasterly at at 18:18. As the sixteen guns aboard the armoured cruisers "Scharnhorst" and were only matched by the two 9.2-inch guns on his flagship, he needed to close the range to bring his more numerous 6-inch guns to bear. The Force 7 winds and high seas, however, prevented the use of half of those guns as they were too close to the water. He also wanted to use the setting sun to his advantage so that its light would blind the German gunners. Spee was well aware of the British advantages and refused to allow Cradock to close the range. His ships were faster than the British, slowed by the 16-knot maximum speed of the armed merchant cruiser , and he opened up the range to until conditions changed to suit him. The sun set at 18:50, which silhouetted the British ships against the light sky while the German ships became indistinguishable from the shoreline behind them.