The chase continued on these lines more or less for the next hour, by which time the _Bluecher_ had dropped very much astern and had hauled away to the North. She was listing heavily, was burning fiercely, and seemed to be defeated. Sir David Beatty thereupon ordered _Indomitable_ to finish her off, and one infers from this, the first mention of _Indomitable_, that she had been unable to keep pace with _New Zealand_, _Princess Royal_, _Tiger_, and _Lion_, and therefore would not be able to assist in the pursuit of the enemy battle-cruisers. The range by this time must have been very much reduced. If between 7:30 and 9:30 a gain of 10,000 yards, or 5,000 yards an hour, had been made, between 9:30 and 10:45 a further gain of 6,250 yards should have been possible, if the conditions had remained the same. But with _Bluecher_ beaten, the German battle-cruisers could honourably think of themselves alone. Unless their speed had been reduced by our fire, while we ought to have gained, we should hardly have caught up so much as in the first hour and a half. But there had, besides, been two destroyer attacks threatened or made by the enemy, one apparently at about twenty minutes to ten, and one at some time between then and 10:40. It is highly probable that each of these attacks caused the British squadron to change course, and we know that before 10:45 the stations had been altered. Each of these three things may have prevented some gain. Still, on the analogy of what had happened in the first two hours, we must suppose the range at this period to have been at most about 13,000 yards. At six minutes to eleven the action had reached the first rendezvous of the German submarines. They were reported to and then seen by the Admiral on his starboard bow, whereupon the squadron was turned to port to avoid them. Very few minutes after this the _Lion_ was disabled. [Illustration: The Dogger Bank Affair. Diagram to illustrate the character of the engagement up to the disablement of _Lion_] What happened from this point is not clear. We know that as Sir David stopped he signalled to _Tiger_, _Princess Royal_, and _New Zealand_ to close on and attack the enemy. _Bluecher_ had been allotted to the _Indomitable_ some twenty minutes before. The squadron passed from Admiral Beatty’s command to that of Rear-Admiral Sir Archibald Moore. In a very few minutes it was, of course, out of sight of the Vice-Admiral himself. Sir David called a destroyer alongside and followed at the best pace he could and, soon after midday, found the squadron returning after breaking off the pursuit some seventy miles from Heligoland. _Bluecher_ had been destroyed, but the three battle-cruisers had escaped. Of the determining factors in these proceedings we know little. Such data as there are will be examined in the next chapter. CHAPTER XVIII THE DOGGER BANK II