The battleships sighted at 7.59 P.M. opened fire on the ships of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron, which had moved out to starboard of the battle line to engage a flotilla of enemy destroyers which were steering to attack the Battle Fleet. The _Calliope_, the flagship of Commodore Le Mesurier, was hit by a heavy shell and received some damage, but retained her fighting efficiency, and fired a torpedo at the leading battleship at a range of 6,500 yards; an explosion was noticed on board a ship of the “Kaiser” class by the _Calliope_.[M] The ships sighted turned away and touch could not be regained, although sounds of gunfire could be heard from ahead at 8.25 P.M., probably from our battle cruisers, which obtained touch with and engaged some of the enemy’s ships very effectively between 8.22 and 8.25 P.M. The _Falmouth_ was the last ship of the Battle Cruiser Fleet to be in touch with the enemy, at 8.38 P.M.; the ships then in sight turned eight points together away from the _Falmouth_. [M] All our battle cruisers felt this heavy explosion which was clearly concussion under water, and may have been caused by the _Calliope’s_ torpedo obtaining a hit. At 8.30 P.M. the light was failing and the Fleet was turned “by divisions” to a south-west course, thus reforming single line again. During the proceedings of the Battle Fleet described above, the battle cruisers were in action ahead as mentioned in Sir David Beatty’s report in the Appendix. At first, touch with the enemy was lost owing to the large alterations of course carried out by the High Sea Fleet, but it was regained at 7.12 P.M., the battle cruisers opening fire at 7.14 P.M., though only for two and a half minutes, and increasing speed to 22 knots. At this period the battle cruisers were steering south-west by south to south-west, and this course took them from the port to the starboard bow of the Battle Fleet by 7.12 P.M. The movements of our battle cruisers, which were at this time between four and five miles ahead of the van of the Battle Fleet, could not be distinguished, owing, partly, to the funnel and cordite smoke from the battle cruisers themselves, but even more to the funnel smoke from the numerous cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers which were attempting to gain their positions ahead of the van. The movements of the enemy’s fleet could not be distinguished from our Battle Fleet owing again to their own funnel and cordite smoke, and, also, to the smoke screens which ships and destroyers were making to conceal their movements. It will be realised that these conditions, which particularly affected the Battle Fleet, did not apply to the same extent to our ships ahead of our Battle Fleet. They had little but the smoke of the enemy’s leading ships to obscure the view. Farther to the rear, the Battle Fleet had the smoke of all our craft ahead of it as well as that of the enemy’s long line of ships. [Illustration: