On 30th May the Grand Fleet under Sir John Jellicoe left its three Scottish bases for a sweep of the North Sea, Sir David Beatty, with the battle-cruiser squadron, Lion, Queen Mary, Princess Royal, Tiger, Indefatigable, and New Zealand, and Sir Evan Thomas, with the four battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, Barham, Malaya, Warspite, and Valiant, setting out from the most southerly of these bases, Rosyth. At 2 p.m. on 31st May Sir John Jellicoe, with the Battle Fleet in 6 divisions, was steaming line-ahead between Aberdeen and the north end of Jutland, in order to meet Sir David Beatty at an appointed rendezvous in the North Sea. Sir John Jellicoe's 6 divisions were, lined east to west, 1st Division (Jerram), King George V, Ajax, Centurion, Erin; 2nd Division (Leveson), Orion, Monarch, Conqueror, Thunderer; 3rd Division (Jellicoe), Iron Duke, Royal Oak, Superb, Canada; 4th Division (Sturdee), Benbow, Bellerophon, Temeraire, Vanguard; 5th Division (Gaunt) Colossus, Collingwood, Neptune, St. Vincent; 6th Division (Burney), Marlborough, Revenge, Hercules, Agincourt.
Both Jellicoe's and Beatty's forces had their attendant suites of destroyers, light cruisers, and other cruisers. The British Grand Fleet in all was constituted of 41 'capital ships', made up of 28 battleships, 9 battle-cruisers, and 4 armoured cruisers. It had also 103 'ancillary craft', made up of 25 light cruisers and 78 destroyers. The German fleet consisted of 20 battleships and 5 battle-cruisers, or 28 'capital ships'; there were also 11 light cruisers and 88 destroyers. In gun power and weight of projectile the Grand Fleet had a striking superiority over the German fleet, and Admiral Jellicoe had apparently a valuable superiority in speed. In his own account of the battle he observes that the speed of some of the German ships had been underestimated.
There was no clear expectation on the British side of meeting the Germans when the Grand Fleet set out for its sweep on a line drawn from Wick to the opposite coast of Norway, with Beatty's 6 battle-cruisers and Evan Thomas's 4 battleships as advance-guard; and when von Scheer set out for the north from Heligoland Bight at daybreak, with an advance-guard of 5 cruisers, supported, 50 miles behind, by 16 Dreadnoughts and 6 slow pre-Dreadnoughts, he had no intention of seeking a general action.
Map showing the approximate positions of the British and German Fleets at various stages of the battle.
The meeting of the advance squadrons began when both were on a level with the northern end of Jutland. Admiral Hipper, who commanded the German cruisers, turned round from north
to south to rejoin his main fleet; he was then east of Admiral Beatty. Beatty followed him, at some disadvantage from smoke and haze. Evan Thomas's battleships were too far behind at this stage to join in the engagement. Hipper fended off Beatty with destroyers as best he could in the hour before the German main fleet could come up, and in that hour Queen Mary and Indefatigable blew up, shells from the German ships, on which the system of fire control appeared to be more accurate than the British, reaching their magazines.
When the German main fleet was seen to be approaching in support, Beatty turned with his 4 remaining cruisers, and Evan Thomas's 4 battleships fell in behind. These 8 were stronger than the German advance 5, and swifter, so that Beatty did not execute a mere retreat but pressed on Hipper, making him turn east, and thereafter placing the British ships on the German line of retreat to Heligoland—'crossing the T', as the manœuvre is called.
Meanwhile Jellicoe's 6 battle divisions were coming on in an oblong of 6 lines of 4 ships each—the long sides of the oblong north and south, the short, east and west. Thus steaming, Jellicoe came into contact with Beatty and Evan Thomas engaged on the east side of the German line, whose head they had faced round and were themselves going south. Beatty and Thomas were thus between Jellicoe and the Germans, and it behoved the British Commander-in-Chief to see that his ships did not hurt one another with their fire. Jellicoe effected the necessary deployment, not in the manner that he had premeditated, but in that which circumstances forced him to employ. It was the less simple way, and the Grand Fleet was not in line till half-past six.