Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 321
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[Page 321]
There all the ships foregathered, and an interesting lot they were: the Gloucester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Sydney, Celtic, Laurentic, Edinburgh Castle and Macedonia (P. and O.), together with a host of storeships and colliers. The Bristol was within wireless call, and the Vindictive, for once loose from her moorings, had just turned back to her weary vigil at the Abrolhos.
That night we had a dinner party aboard the Sydney and heard the stories of the Gloucester, Glasgow and Liverpool. The Gloucester had chased the Goeben into the Dardanelles, though her officers told us they made no attempt to close her: the Gloucester would have probably lasted two salvoes against the battle-cruiser. They badly wanted to keep the Hun in sight in case our battle-cruisers came up to finish her off, and they repeatedly sent out dummy signals to our battle-cruiser fleet to delude the Germans and keep them on the run. As a matter of fact through some failure in information our big ships were not within hail; but the Goeben, hearing the Gloucester panicking to them, firmly believed that the Invincible and Inflexible were at her heels. Perhaps it was just this that drove the Goeben finally into the Turkish hands and caused the complications which resulted in Turkey joining Germany. History however will tell us.
The Glasgow's officers told us what little they knew of Coronel, the gist of which has been given in a previous