Very late on Monday night the battleships of the Channel Fleet passed the Lizard, having received orders to proceed up Channel and join the great fleet assembling at Portland. Already there were concentrated at that point eleven battleships of the Devonport and Portsmouth reserve squadrons, seven armoured cruisers, and fifty torpedo vessels of all kinds. At Chatham, where the activity shown had not been what was expected of the British Navy, the Commander-in-Chief had been removed on Monday morning and replaced, and a fresh officer had also been appointed to the command of the reserve squadron. The policy enjoined on him was, however, a waiting one; the vessels at Chatham, being exposed, if they ventured out, to attack by the whole force of the Germans, were to remain behind the guns of the forts, or such guns as had not been sold off by the War Office and the British Government in the general anxiety to effect retrenchments. The entire naval force was mobilised, though the mobilisation was not as yet quite complete. On Tuesday night the British Admiralty had available the following ships:-- AT PORTLAND-- Eleven battleships of the Channel Fleet. Eleven battleships of the Reserve. Seven armoured cruisers. Twelve ocean-going destroyers. Twelve coastal destroyers. Ten submarines. Twenty older destroyers. Ten protected cruisers. OFF DUNGENESS-- Two armoured cruisers. Ten submarines. Four sea-going destroyers. Ten older destroyers. Twelve coastal destroyers. WEST COAST OF IRELAND-- Two large protected cruisers. MILFORD HAVEN-- Nine armoured cruisers of the Channel Cruiser Squadron. Eight ocean-going destroyers. LAND’S END-- One large protected cruiser. Ten older destroyers. CAPE WRATH-- Two armoured cruisers. Ten older destroyers. Twelve ocean-going destroyers. And at various points along the south coast twelve coastal destroyers and a dozen old protected cruisers. The Chatham ships were not included in this force, and mustered eight battleships, four armoured cruisers, twelve coastal destroyers, twenty older destroyers, and twenty submarines, besides a number of smaller and older cruisers of doubtful value. On Tuesday evening the Admiralty ordered the Channel Armoured Cruiser Squadron to put to sea from Milford, proceed north round the coast of Scotland, picking up on its way the two armoured cruisers and torpedo flotilla off Cape Wrath, which had taken up their position at Loch Eriboll, and then to attack the German detachment at Lerwick, and clear the northern entrance to the North Sea. A large number of colliers were to accompany or follow the fleet, which was strictly ordered not to risk an engagement with the main German forces, but to retire if they appeared, falling back on the Irish Sea.