Not a single British ship was sunk or, indeed, seriously injured; and our casualties did not exceed thirty-five killed and about forty wounded, in spite of the fact that, in the words of the German Lieutenant Tholens, ‘The English ships made the greatest efforts to pick up the survivors.’[59] Two hundred and twenty-four Germans, many desperately wounded, were rescued in circumstances of much danger by Commodore Keyes on the destroyer _Lurcher_, and brought to England. Considerably more than a thousand Germans, including the Flotilla Admiral and the Destroyer Commodore, perished. A son of Admiral von Tirpitz was among the prisoners. Much more important, however, than these material gains was the effect produced upon the morale of the enemy. The Germans knew nothing of our defective Staff work and of the risks we had run. All they saw was that the British did not hesitate to hazard their greatest vessels as well as their light craft in the most daring offensive action and had escaped apparently unscathed. They felt as we should have felt had German destroyers broken into the Solent and their battle-cruisers penetrated as far as the Nab. The results of this action were far-reaching. Henceforward the weight of British naval prestige lay heavy across all German sea enterprise. Upon the Emperor the impression produced was decisive. Thus Scheer (p. 57): ‘The restrictions imposed on the Battle Fleet were adhered to.’ And still more explicit, von Tirpitz (p. 357): ‘... August 28th, a day fateful, both in its after effects and incidental results, for the work of our navy.... The Emperor did not want losses of this sort.... Orders were issued by the Emperor ... after an audience to Pohl, to which I as usual was not summoned, to restrict the initiative of the Commander-in-Chief of the North Sea Fleet: the loss of ships was to be avoided, fleet sallies and any greater undertakings must be approved by His Majesty in advance,’ etc. On von Tirpitz protesting against ‘this muzzling policy’ ... ‘there sprang up from that day forth an estrangement between the Emperor and myself, which steadily increased.’ The German Navy was indeed ‘muzzled.’ Except for furtive movements by individual submarines and minelayers not a dog stirred from August till November. Meanwhile our strength, both offensive afloat and defensive in our harbours, was steadily and rapidly increasing. The news of this naval action reached the French and British armies in the dark hour before the dawn of victory and was everywhere published to the retreating troops.[60] * * * * *