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Maps| Admiral Maximilian von Spee was one of the most famous
German sailors of the First World War, winning his fame at the
battle of Coronel, the first British naval defeat for a century.
He is normally described as a successful cruiser commander, but
Coronel was a conventional battle between two naval squadrons.
Von Spee was born into an aristocratic family in 1861. He joined
the German navy in 1878, only seven years after its creation. He
rose steadily through the ranks, serving as a lieutenant on the
1884-85 mission that established Germany’s empire in west
Africa. He returned to the Cameroon as the port commander in
1887, but was soon forced home by illness. He then served on the
training ship Moltke, before being appointed commander of the
first class cruiser SMS Deutschland in 1897. Originally built as
a central battery ironclad battleship, she had been rebuilt as a
cruiser in the 1890s. In 1897 she was serving on the China
station, return