meters (6 ft 7 in) of freeboard. At 16:17, the ship finally capsized to port and sank; the British, their attention now focused on Gneisenau, made no attempt to rescue the crew. All 860 officers and men on board, including Spee, went down with the ship. Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nürnberg were also sunk. Only Dresden managed to escape, but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernandez Islands and sunk. The complete destruction of the squadron killed about 2,200 German sailors and officers, including two of Spee's sons.
In mid-1915, a coastal steamer found the body of a German sailor off the coast of Brazil. The sailor had a watertight cartridge case from a 21 cm shell attached; inside was one of the Reichskriegsflaggen (Imperial war flags) flown aboard Scharnhorst. The sailor was buried in Brazil and the flag was eventually returned to Germany, where it was placed on display at the Museum für Meereskunde (Marine Science) in Berlin, though it was lost during World War II. In the mid-1930s, the new German navy, the Kriegsmarine, built a battleship named for Scharnhorst. At the launching of the new Scharnhorst in October 1936, the widow of the earlier ship's captain was present.
- "SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff" (German: His Majesty's Ship).
- In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun barrel is 40 times as long as it is in diameter.
- This meant the removal of all non-essential items, to include dress uniforms, tapestries, furniture, and other flammable objects. See: Hough, p. 17.
- Rüger, p. 160.
- Gröner, p. 52.
- Gardiner & Gray, p. 142.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 105.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 106.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, pp. 106–107.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 107.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 108.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, pp. 108–109.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 109.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, pp. 109–110.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 110.
- Hough, pp. 11–12.
- Hough, pp. 17–18.
- Halpern, p. 66.
- Staff, p. 29.
- Halpern, p. 71.
- Hough, pp. 1–2.
- Hough, pp. 3–4.
- Hough, p. 5.
- Hough, p. 23.
- Hough, p. 33.
- Strachan, p. 471.
- Staff, pp. 29–30.
- Staff, p. 30.
- Halpern, p. 89.
- Hawkins, p. 34.
- Halpern, p. 92.
- Staff, pp. 30–31.
- Herwig, p. 156.
- Halpern, pp. 92–93.
- Halpern, p. 93.
- Staff, p. 32.
- Staff, p. 33.
- Staff, pp. 33–34.
- Staff, p. 34.
- Staff, p. 35.
- Herwig, p. 157.
- Staff, p. 36.
- Strachan, p. 36.
- Staff, p. 39.
- Staff, pp. 58–59.
- Strachan, p. 41.
- Strachan, p. 47.
- Staff, pp. 61–62.
- Staff, p. 62.
- Bennett, p. 115.
- Staff, p. 63.
- Herwig, p. 158.
- Bennett, p. 117.
- Staff, p. 66.
- Bennett, p. 118.
- Staff, p. 67.
- Staff, p. 68.
- Staff, p. 69.
- Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 112.
- Williamson, p. 8.
- Bennett, Geoffrey (2005). Naval Battles of the First World War. London: Pen & Sword Military Classics. ISBN 978-1-84415-300-8.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
- Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7.
- Hawkins, Nigel (2002). Starvation Blockade: The Naval Blockades of WWI. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-85052-908-1.
- Herwig, Holger (1998) . "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert; Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe (Band 7) [The German Warships (Volume 7)]. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. OCLC 310653560.
- Hough, Richard (1980). Falklands 1914: The Pursuit of Admiral Von Spee. Penzance: Periscope Publishing. ISBN 978-1-904381-12-9.
- Rüger, Jan (2007). The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the 