The German commander-in-chief was well aware that in a daylight action he could expect nothing but destruction. He resolved on a rush for home in the dark, and here again he has the credit of a right decision and a right method. He sent his ships to make their way through in detachments. Some three or four light cruisers first ran into our destroyers, slightly damaged the _Castor_, received a torpedo hit, and vanished. Another group of cruisers attacked our Second Light Cruiser Squadron at very short range, inflicted heavy casualties on the _Dublin_ and the _Southampton_, and disappeared, but with the loss of the light cruiser _Frauenlob_. The destroyer _Sparrowhawk_ was sunk in action with a third group of cruisers, and a little later the _Tipperary_. At midnight some battleships passed near the same flotilla, and one, the _Pommern_, was torpedoed and sunk. Another battleship squadron followed soon after, and sank the destroyer _Ardent_. At 1.46 a.m. the Twelfth Flotilla, farther north, sighted six Kaiser battleships and attacked them. Captain Stirling, in the _Faulkner_, torpedoed one, and some time later Commander Champion, in the _Nomad_, hit another; but the Germans claim that both the wounded ships reached port. The Ninth Flotilla lost the _Turbulent_, rammed by a large unknown vessel; but at 2.35 the destroyer _Moresby_, of the Thirteenth Flotilla, attacked four _Deutschland_ battleships and torpedoed one. Lastly, it is believed that the _Black Prince_, who had been crippled hours before, was seen for a moment under the searchlights and guns of a number of enemy ships, who sank her at once. All this battle by night was fought under the most desperate conditions, the horror of darkness and the glare and crash of sudden death alternating for five hours; but it was far more ruinous to the German fleet than to the British. When day broke, Admiral Jellicoe formed his fleet in line ahead and turned north; at 5.15 he called in the battle-cruisers; at 6 a.m. he sighted his cruisers, and at 9 the destroyers rejoined. He had now all his force in hand, except the Sixth Division of six battleships under Admiral Burney, whose flagship, the _Marlborough_, had been hit by a torpedo and was now being sent home under escort to be repaired. This, however, was no cause for delay, and Admiral Jellicoe patrolled the battle area till noon, in search of the enemy, moving first north, then south-west, and finally north by west.