Some papers were left aboard Tairoa in the rush to send distress signals, and German personnel recovered them. The documents could reveal shipping routes and help identify points where merchant traffic gathered. Their value had a limit: the Royal Navy could read the same geography and guard the likely choke points. Graf Spee could use the captured information, but operating near the locations it revealed carried its own risk.
Notable Point · 3:25-4:32
What Graf Spee gained from Tairoa's routing papers
Routing papers left aboard Tairoa could reveal merchant routes and choke points, although those same places were likely to be guarded by the Royal Navy.