Whilst observers in ships in the van and centre of the Battle Fleet could see only three or four enemy vessels at any one time, those in the ships of the rear division did occasionally see as many as eight, and were consequently better able to distinguish the formation and movements of the enemy’s Battle Fleet. It was not possible, owing to the small number of ships in sight, due to smoke and mist, to distribute the fire of the battleships by signal in the customary manner; the only course to adopt was for the captains to direct the fire of their guns on to any target which they could distinguish. The course of the Fleet on deployment had been south-east by east, as already stated, but the van had hauled on to south-east without signal shortly after deployment in order to close the enemy, and at 6.50 P.M., as the range was apparently opening, the course was altered by signal to south “by divisions” in order to close the enemy. The _King George V._, leading the van of the Battle Fleet, had just anticipated this signal by turning to south. The alteration was made “by divisions” instead of “in succession” in order that the enemy should be closed more rapidly by the whole Battle Fleet. This large turn (of four points) “by divisions” involved some small amount of “blanketing” of the rear ships of one division by the leading ships of that next astern, and at one time the _Thunderer_ was firing over the bows of the _Iron Duke_, causing some slight inconvenience on the bridge of the latter ship; the “blanketing,” however, was unavoidable and the loss of fire involved was inappreciable. At 6.45 P.M. one or two torpedoes crossed the track of the rear of our battle line, and the _Marlborough_ altered course to avoid one. They were apparently fired, at long range, by enemy destroyers, which were barely visible to the ships in rear and quite invisible to those on board the _Iron Duke_. They might, however, have been fired by enemy battleships which were within torpedo range, or by a submarine, the _Revenge_ reporting that it was thought that one had been rammed by that ship. The tracks of some of the torpedoes were seen by the observers stationed aloft, and were avoided by very skilful handling of the ships by their captains. At 6.45 P.M., however, a heavy explosion occurred under the fore bridge of the _Marlborough_, abreast the starboard forward hydraulic engine-room. The ship took up a list of some seven degrees to starboard, but continued in action so effectively that she avoided three more torpedoes shortly afterwards, re-opened fire at 7.3 P.M., and at 7.12 P.M. fired fourteen rapid salvoes at a ship of the “König” class, hitting her so frequently that she was seen to turn out of line.