Beatty's losses were most severe. ====================================================================== {174} [Illustration: PLAN SHOWING THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE BATTLE FLEET] ====================================================================== Joining battle about ten minutes to four, at a range of ten and a half miles, both sides pressed the attack with the utmost vigour, and it was within a few minutes of the opening of the engagement that the _Indefatigible_, struck on a turret over a well-filled magazine, was sunk, thus equalizing the numbers of the opposing battle-cruisers. Meanwhile the 15-inch guns of the great _Queen Elizabeth_ had begun to speak at a range of fourteen miles, and, at the same time, submarines were reported on both sides of the line of battle. These were driven off by the destroyers _Lydiard_ and _Landrail_ and the Light Cruiser _Nottingham_, and, a few minutes later, a concerted {176} destroyer-attack was launched upon the enemy cruisers. This was conducted by the _Nestor_, _Nomad_, _Nicator_, _Narborough_, and _Nerissa_, the _Pelican_, _Petard_, _Obdurate_, _Moorsom_, and _Morris_, and the _Turbulent_ and _Termagant_; and, almost simultaneously, a like attack was observed to be in formation on the part of the enemy, fifteen of his destroyers and a light cruiser being thus intercepted and engaged at close quarters. By half-past four, therefore, the Battle of Jutland had already developed into the biggest of the war. Racing southward at thirty miles an hour were fourteen of the most powerful vessels in the world, belching half-ton shells in giant parabolas covering eight to a dozen miles of sea; while, in between them, and under the arch of their fire, were some thirty of the latest destroyers fighting a separate battle, as it were, at close quarters and with the greatest ferocity. On our own side, an 18,000-ton battle-cruiser had already been lost with most of her crew, while the enemy's third of the line was seen to be on fire in the mists now beginning to gather in the northeast. Two enemy destroyers were also sunk in the mêlée of the mosquito-craft; but, while they were driven back in disorder, our own torpedo-attack had been compromised, the destroyers, owing to this fight, having fallen some way behind the big battle-cruisers that were their objectives. They were thus at a distinct disadvantage, but nevertheless, having disposed of the enemy counter-attack, the three destroyers, _Nestor_, _Nomad_, and _Nicator_, proceeded on their original errand--where, for the moment, we may leave them chasing the enemy {177} battle-cruisers and being themselves heavily bombarded.