[1] Guben, a 4,962 gross register tons (GRT) German-Australian Line (Deutsche-Australische Dampfschiffs Gesellschaft) freighter, was converted to a auxiliary cruiser and renamed SMS Greif.

Greif had a complement of around 360 officers and men and had orders to sail around the north of Iceland into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait to operate as a commerce raider and then make for German East Africa, if it could not return to Germany.

[6] Admiral Sir John Jellicoe ordered two cruisers and four destroyers from Rosyth into the North Sea, to block the path of the ship if it sailed west and the light cruisers HMS Comus (Captain Alan Hotham), Calliope and Blanche with the destroyer HMS Munster, from Scapa Flow (Scapa), to sweep the Norwegian coast in case it sailed north.

[8] Wardle had arranged to meet the relief 60 nmi (69 mi; 110 km) east of Shetland and was close to the meeting-point at 08:00, when a signal arrived ordering Alcantara to remain, because a disguised German auxiliary cruiser was expected to sail through the patrol line that day from the south.

Greif opened fire, hitting the boat containing the boarding party and damaging Alcantara's telemotor steering gear before the British ship could reply.

[10] Hotham, in Comus, the most northern of the cruisers from Scapa, had seen the signals from Andes and sailed south in company with the destroyer Munster; he arrived as the action ended, beginning rescue work with the crew of the Alcantara as it sank.

The mistake cost Wardle his vessel and several casualties but he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and eventually reached the rank of rear admiral.

The swift end to the voyage of the Greif led to the German Admiralty suspending commerce raiding and renewing their emphasis on submarine warfare.