My object in closing the columns to one mile apart was to ensure that adjacent columns should not lose sight of each other during the night, and that therefore they would not mistake our own ships for those of the enemy.
As soon as the Battle Fleet had turned to the southerly course the destroyer flotillas were directed to take station five miles astern of the Battle Fleet. At 9.32 P.M. a signal was made to the mine-laying flotilla leader Abdiel (Captain Berwick Curtis) to proceed to lay a mine-field in a defined area some 15 miles from the Vyl Lightship, over which it was expected the High Sea Fleet would pass if the ships attempted to regain their ports during the night viâ the Horn Reef. The Abdiel carried out this operation unobserved in the same successful manner as numerous other similar operations had been undertaken by this most useful little vessel; from the evidence of one of our submarines, stationed near the Horn Reef, which reported on return to her base having heard several underwater explosions between 2.15 and 5.30 A.M. on June 1st, it was judged that some enemy ships had struck mines.
At 10 P.M. the position of the Iron Duke was Lat. 56.22 N., Long. 5.47 E., course south, speed 17 knots, and the order of the Fleet from west to east was:
Battle Cruiser Fleet (except 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron); Cruiser Squadrons;
Battle Fleet;
2nd Light Cruiser Squadron astern of the 5th Battle Squadron;
4th Light Cruiser Squadron ahead of the Battle Fleet;
11th, 4th, 12th, 9th, 10th and 13th Flotillas disposed from west to east, in that order, astern of the Battle Fleet.
Shortly before the turn of the Fleet to the southward for the night a destroyer attack took place on the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at the rear of our Battle line. This was reported to me shortly after 9 P.M., but immediately afterwards a further report stated that the enemy had been driven off to the north-west.
At 10.4 P.M. Commodore Hawkesley, in the Castor, commanding the destroyer flotillas, after dropping astern, sighted three or more vessels at a range of 2,000 yards which he took to be enemy battle cruisers. If the German report is to be believed, the ships were light cruisers and included the Hamburg and Elbing. The enemy at once opened a rapid and accurate fire, and the Castor was hit, and her bridge and wireless telegraphy gear damaged, making it impossible to signal to the 11th Flotilla, which the Castor was leading. The damage to the Castor was slight. The Castor, Magic, and Marne fired torpedoes at the enemy, but the remaining destroyers of the flotilla refrained from doing so, not being certain of the identity of the vessels in sight. The enemy disappeared after a violent detonation, following on the discharge of the torpedoes, had been felt in the engine-rooms of the destroyers near the Castor.