These consisted, as we have seen, of the Light Cruiser _Arethusa_, flying Commodore Tyrwhitt's broad pennant, the Light Cruiser _Fearless_, under Captain W. F. Blunt, and most of the destroyers of the First and Third Flotillas, and, at daybreak, they, too, began to push their way into the misty Bight. Nor had they long to wait for the enemy. Though the visibility was poor, seldom at first extending to more than three miles, and though the fighting in consequence afterward became confused, the general strategical plan soon proved itself to have been sound. Issuing apparently from berths between the Frisian Islands and the coast-line, a patrol of German destroyers, setting out toward Heligoland, suddenly discovered our forces on the east, or Bight, side of them. Previous to this, at about ten minutes to seven, a solitary German destroyer had already been sighted and chased, but now, for forty minutes, from twenty minutes past seven, a general action ensued--the _Arethusa_ and Third Flotilla engaging the German destroyers, and steering northwest to cut them off from Heligoland. So far the presence of the _Arethusa_, whose armament has already been described, had given us the advantage in this particular attack; but, just before eight o'clock, two German cruisers loomed out of the mist, one with four funnels and one with two. Whether these had come from Heligoland or had followed up the destroyer-patrol was not apparent, but {35} they immediately joined action, and, for a quarter of an hour, the little _Arethusa_ found herself being bombarded by both of them as well as by various destroyers. Firing with every gun, the _Arethusa_, then only forty-eight hours out of the builders' hands, was already in as tight a corner as she could have asked for and beginning to suffer pretty heavily. Twice she was hit below the water-line, but saved by the skill and promptitude of her engineers; shrapnel shells were bursting over her deck, and men were already dropping as the result of them; Lieutenant Westmacott was killed at Commodore Tyrwhitt's side; the foremost port gun was shot out of action, the gunlayer being blown out of his seat; gun after gun was wrecked and the torpedo tubes disabled, till only one 6-inch gun remained effective; and a bursting shell, exploding some ammunition, started a furious fire on the _Arethusa's_ deck. Fortunately, at a quarter past eight, Captain Blunt in the _Fearless_--of which a destroyer officer afterward wrote that "to see the old _Fearless_ charging round the field of fight, seeking fresh foes, was most inspiriting"--and appeared on the scene, and attracted to herself the guns of the four-funnelled German cruiser. Thus relieved a little, for ten minutes longer, the _Arethusa_ fought the other on a converging course, till a splendidly directed shot wrecked the German's forebridge, and she broke off toward Heligoland, which was just in sight.