Despite his victory Spee was pessimistic about his own chances of survival and dismissive with regard to the harm done to the British navy The official explanation of the defeat as presented to the House of Commons by Winston Churchill was: "feeling he could not bring the enemy immediately to action as long as he kept with Canopus, he decided to attack them with his fast ships alone, in the belief that even if he himself were destroyed... he would inflict damage on them which ...would lead to their certain subsequent destruction."