The man who really "aims" the gun never sees what he is shooting at. At some point of vantage on his ship one of the officers observes the enemy and reports to the chief gunner the distance, the direction, and the effect of the first shots. The gunnery officer then makes certain calculations, taking into consideration the speed of his own ship and the speed of the enemy ship. He knows that at a given moment his target will be at a given point. He knows also just how fast his shells will travel and makes calculations that enable him to place a shell at that point at just the right second. In this battle the shells of the British ship took about twenty seconds to go from the mouths of the guns to the German hulls. And they made a curve at the highest point of which they reached a distance of more than two miles; and most wonderful of all was the fact that at the beginning of the firing a man standing on the deck of one of the German ships could not even see the ship which was firing the shells at her, though the weather was very clear. By a quarter to ten o'clock the _Lion_ had come up with and had passed the slow _Bluecher_, firing broadsides into her as she went by. The _Tiger_ then passed the unfortunate German ship, also letting her have a heavy fire, and then the _Princess Royal_ did likewise. Finally the _New Zealand_ was able to engage her and later even the slow _Indomitable_ got near enough to do so. By that time the _Bluecher_ was afire and one of her gun turrets, with its crew and gun, had been swept off bodily by a British shell. Meanwhile the _Lion, Tiger_, and _Princess Royal_ kept straight ahead till they were able to "straddle" even the leading ship of the enemy's line. The _Tiger_ and _Lion_ poured shells into the _Seydlitz_, but were unable to do much damage to the _Moltke_. While they were thus engaged the _Princess Royal_ singled out the _Derfftinger_ for her target. The light British cruiser _Aurora, Arethusa_, and _Undaunted_ were far ahead of the rest of the British fleet and were firing at the _Moltke_, but thick black smoke which poured from their funnels as their engines were speeded up got between the gunners of the _Lion_ and their target, the _Moltke_, completely obscuring the latter. As a result the three light British cruisers were ordered to slow down and to take positions to the rear. By eleven o'clock there were fires raging on both the _Seydlitz_ and the _Derfftinger_, and Admiral Hipper decided to try to save his larger ships by sacrificing the destroyers that accompanied them. Consequently the German destroyers put their bows right toward the large British ships and charged, but the fire which they drew was too much for them and they gave up this maneuver.