Already it was obvious that the Goethe was doomed. Each of the British battleships as she passed gave her a broadside, leaving her to be finally dealt with by the light cruisers.
The chase had continued for over two hours. Far in advance, the British Dreadnoughts were engaged in a fierce running fight with the German battleships, pounding them incessantly.
The fire of the Brandenburg and the Lessing grew weaker and weaker. Masses of flames were sweeping their decks, their upper works were a confusion of wreckage. All that their commanders could hope for now was to reach the sanctuary of the German mine-field before their relentless foes should overtake and totally destroy them.
The third vessel in the German line, the Mozart, suffered even more severely. She had come under the long-range fire of each of the British battleships in turn. One after another her guns had been smashed out of action until she was silenced and could do no more than steam desperately for shelter, with the whole of her after-deck ablaze. Boats were launched, and many of her people jumped overboard to escape the awful inferno.
In the meantime, the British flagship was running perilously near to the German mine-field. At any moment there might be a terrific explosion under her keel. Yet still she went on. So thick was the air around her with black oil-smoke and the dense fumes from her guns that she sent out her signals by flashlight.
One of the Mozart's crowded lifeboats fell into her track. Her course was promptly altered, and there was the curious spectacle of a great battleship, while firing death and destruction into an enemy, steering aside to avoid running down one of that enemy's boats.
To the risk of hitting an explosive mine was added the danger from several submarines which had come out from Heligoland to cover the retreat of the battleships. The U50 was amongst them, and Max Hilliger, helping Lieutenant Körner, very nearly succeeded in planting a torpedo in the Saturn's hull.
The pursuit could not be continued with safety, and accordingly the three damaged Dreadnoughts were allowed to escape beyond range, while the Saturn turned her attention to the enemy cruisers in their wake, working round to head them off and drive them down upon the English light cruisers hotly pursuing them.
It was while the British flagship was thus engaged that a shell from the Wurzburg struck her below the water-line, so damaging one of her feed tanks that her speed was reduced and she was obliged to call for assistance. The Patroclus at once took her in tow, and her withdrawal from the battle enabled the German light cruisers to escape.
There was no ship in the whole of the British squadron which was not at some time engaged with an opponent; but not one German vessel gave as much as she received. Most of them were seriously crippled, and many of them had the greatest difficulty in limping home.