Atlantique

Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Original color map. Elephant folio. (59x75 cm). In Ottoman script. [OTTOMAN MILITARY MAP of PATAGONIA and FALKLAND ISLANDS: ROUTE of DRESDEN] Alman kruvazörü Dresden'in takîbi ve tahrîbi. SMS Dresden cruiser's routes between 1913-1915 (World War 1) on the Patagonian shelf; western shores of South America, Patagonia and Falkland Islands. Dresden spent much of her career overseas. After commissioning, she visited the United States in 1909 during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, before returning to Germany to serve in the reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet for three years. In 1913, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Division. She was then sent to the Caribbean to protect German nationals during the Mexican Revolution. In mid-1914, she carried the former dictator Victoriano Huerta to Jamaica, where the British had granted him asylum. She was due to return to Germany in July 1914, but was prevented by the outbreak of World War I from doing so. At the onset of hostilities, Dresden operated as a commerce raider in South American waters in the Atlantic, then moved to the Pacific Ocean in September and joined Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron. Dresden saw action in the Battle of Coronel in November, where she engaged the British cruiser HMS Glasgow, and at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December, where she was the only German warship to escape destruction. She eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into Robinson Crusoe Island in March 1915. Her engines were worn out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers, so the ship's captain contacted the local Chilean authorities to have Dresden interned. She was trapped by British cruisers, including her old opponent Glasgow. The British violated Chilean neutrality and opened fire on the ship in the Battle of Más a Tierra. The Germans scuttled Dresden and the majority of the crew escaped to be interned in Chile for the duration of the war. The wreck remains in the harbor; several artifacts, including her bell and compass, have been returned to Germany.