At 09:15 on 1 November, "Glasgow" left port to meet Cradock at noon, west of Coronel. Seas were rough so that it was impossible to send a boat between the ships to deliver the messages, which had to be transferred on a line floated in the sea. At 13:05, the ships formed into a line abreast formation apart, with "Glasgow" at the eastern end, and started to steam north at searching for "Leipzig". At 16:17 "Leipzig", accompanied by the other German ships, spotted smoke from the line of British ships. Spee ordered full speed so that "Scharnhorst", "Gneisenau" and "Leipzig" were approaching the British at , with the slower light cruisers "Dresden" and "Nürnberg" some way behind.