On 4 October 1914, the British learned from an intercepted radio message that Spee planned to attack shipping on the trade routes along the west coast of South America. Having correctly guessed the intention of the German commander, Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock patrolled the area with a Squadron consisting of the armoured cruisers (flagship) and , the modern light cruiser , and the armed merchantman . The Admiralty had planned to reinforce the squadron by sending the newer and more powerful armoured cruiser from the Mediterranean but temporarily diverted this ship to patrol the western Atlantic. "Defence" reached Montevideo two days after the battle and instead, Cradock received the pre-dreadnought battleship .