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2. The first British naval victory was accomplished by diplomats in Montevideo
Another of the neutrality laws stated that a warship could not leave a neutral port following the departure of a merchant ship “flying the flag of its adversary” for 24 hours. British diplomats demanded the German ship be ordered to leave the port. At the same time, they secretly manipulated the scheduled departures of ships to control the time of Graf Spee’s departure. Their goal was to assemble a more powerful British force to destroy the damaged German ship. Langsdorff asked for two weeks to make repairs on his ship, arguing it was not seaworthy. It was denied.
The Germans released 61 merchant seamen they had taken prisoner, and through the German embassy Langsdorff received instructions from Berlin. He was told that internment in Montevideo was unacceptable. Langsdorff decided that another battle with the British ships would accomplish nothing but casualties, and surrender was unthinkable. He scuttled the ship in the estuary on December 17, 1939 and his crew were sent to Buenos Aires for internment. He committed suicide on December 20 and was buried with the dead from Battle of the River Plate in the Argentinian city.