The extensive dispositions necessitated by the temporary change of base were at once ordered. Colliers, store-ships, and auxiliaries of one kind and another, which were either _en route_ to, or at, Scapa Flow, were diverted to the new bases; the 2nd Battle Squadron and 1st Battle Cruiser Squadron were ordered to Loch-na-Keal to fuel and to improvise anti-submarine obstructions at the entrance; and the _Illustrious_ was ordered there from Loch Ewe to act as guard ship; the 1st and 4th Battle Squadrons and 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron were detached to cruise to the north-westward of the Hebrides for blockading purposes, and to carry out practices; and the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, 2nd Cruiser Squadron and 3rd and 6th Battle Squadrons were sent to Lough Swilly to coal. The cruiser blockade and look-out line was withdrawn farther to the northward owing to the danger from submarines incurred in operating in the central or southern portions of the North Sea on a regular patrol, and the impossibility of providing destroyers as a screen for the ships. The new line was to the northward of the Shetland Islands, and the 3rd and 10th Cruiser Squadrons and armed merchant-cruisers carried out the patrol. There were, therefore, two lines of blockade, one formed by the heavy ships north-westward of the Hebrides, the second to the northward of the Shetland Islands. The organisation was such that it was probable that vessels attempting to evade the blockade would pass one of the two lines during daylight hours. In making these new dispositions it was still intended to keep the North Sea itself under observation by frequent cruiser sweeps. Numerous reports of submarines in the Minch at this time led to the _Active_ and two divisions of destroyers being sent there to search for them, and the remainder of the 2nd and 4th Flotillas were divided between blockade duty in the Pentland Firth, work at Scapa Flow, and in the vicinity of the Orkneys and Shetlands, and with the ships at Loch-na-Keal and Lough Swilly. On October 21st the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron arrived at Cromarty to coal. Owing to the receipt of information from the Admiralty early that day, that it was reported that some German cruisers, destroyers and submarines had left Danzig on October 17th for the North Sea, the 1st Battle Cruiser Squadron and 1st Light Cruiser Squadron were ordered to leave their bases that morning, proceed into the North Sea, and sweep down on a broad front to the Skagerrak, screened by the 4th Flotilla of destroyers. The latter had to be sent back to their base on October 22nd owing to heavy weather. The remainder of the force swept up to the Skaw without sighting any enemy vessels, then north along the Norwegian coast, and proceeded, the 1st Battle Cruiser Squadron to Cromarty and the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron to Scapa.