 "En route", the ships captured the collier on 11 August and sank her; "Hampshire" was too short on coal by then to make the island so Jerram ordered her back to Hong Kong with the crew of the "Elspeth".At the end of the month, she was ordered down to the Dutch East Indies to search for any German ships at sea, narrowly missing the German light cruiser .The German ship had not been reported since the war began and she sailed into the Bay of Bengal and began preying upon unsuspecting British shipping beginning on 14 September.