September 7th.—The 3rd Cruiser Squadron left Scapa, with destroyers, swept down in the direction of the Horn Reef, and arrived at Rosyth on the 9th without sighting enemy vessels. Visibility was low during the sweep.
September 8th.—The 7th Cruiser Squadron left Rosyth, with destroyers, swept out to the eastward, towards the Skagerrak, then turned to the northward and arrived at Scapa on the 10th.
Two destroyers were damaged by collision with steamers in a fog on the 8th, necessitating repairs at a dockyard in both cases.
September 10th–12th.—The Lion, with the 1st and 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadrons, the 1st and 2nd Light Cruiser Squadrons and 16 destroyers, was cruising in the North Sea to cover mine-laying operations carried out by our mine-layers in the Heligoland Bight, the remainder of the Grand Fleet being, as was usual on such occasions, at short notice for steam. The Fearless and a destroyer, part of the force with the battle cruisers, collided while at sea, the former sustaining considerable damage.
September 11th.—The Patia and Oropesa, of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, collided; the Patia was seriously damaged, and was brought into port under convoy of a destroyer and armed trawlers with considerable difficulty, being unsuccessfully attacked by a submarine en route.
September 12th.—Submarine E 16, attached to the Grand Fleet flotilla, was sent to the coast of Norway from Aberdeen to operate against an enemy submarine thought to be operating in those waters. On the 15th E 16 sighted a hostile submarine off the Norwegian coast and sank her with a torpedo. This success, one of the earliest achieved by one submarine operating against another, was very encouraging after the somewhat similar success of C 27 in July.
September 17th.—The 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, with four destroyers, left Rosyth to sweep to the Skagerrak. They returned on the 19th, without having sighted any enemy vessels.
September 23rd.—The destroyer Christopher was damaged in collision with the armed boarding-steamer King Orry in a fog.
September 26th.—The s.s. Caribbean, which had been fitted out as a receiving-ship for dockyard workmen, encountered very heavy weather whilst en route from her port to Scapa, and got into serious difficulties, taking in a great deal of water. Her wireless distress calls off Cape Wrath were answered by sending to her assistance the light cruiser Birkenhead from Scapa, together with tugs and yachts from Scapa and Stornoway. At 4.45 A.M. on the 27th the Birkenhead and patrol vessels, which were then standing by, took off most of the crew of the Caribbean, which sank at 7.30 A.M., unfortunately with the loss of 15 lives.
During the month the battle and cruiser squadrons carried out independent cruises by day and at night from the Scapa and Rosyth bases, being screened by destroyers during the exercises. The squadrons of the Battle Cruiser Fleet, also, all visited Scapa for the purpose of carrying out gunnery and torpedo practices.