September 17:
At Suvarov (Suwarow) Atoll in the Cook Islands SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau meet with the collier O.J.D. Ahlers, but the sea is too rough for the difficult operation of manhandling bags of coal from one ship to the other. Admiral von Spee orders the group to proceed to the sheltered bay at Bora Bora.
Still lurking off the coast of Brazil, the lookouts aboard SMS Karlsruhe see a ship's lights approaching just before dawn. The captain of the collier SS Indrani had decided that since he was so far off the usual trade routes he should be safe keeping his lights on. Upon discovering that Indrani has 7,000 tons of coal aboard, Captain Köhler decides to keep her as a spare collier.
At about noon SMS Emden reaches the intersection between the Madras-Rangoon and Calcutta-Singapore trade routes and patrols the area for several hours. At nightfall the decision is taken to proceed to the Bay of Rangoon.
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“Never do anything you can't take back.”
—Rocky Russo
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