completed his sweep to the south, had turned north about mid-day to rejoin Sir John Jellicoe. The sea was dead calm, like a sheet of glass. His Light Cruiser Squadrons formed a screen in front of him from east to west.
At 2.20 p.m. Galatea (Commodore Alexander-Sinclair), the flagship of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, signalled enemy vessels to the east. Sir David Beatty at once altered course to south-south-east, the direction of the Horn Reef, in order to get between the enemy and his base.
Five minutes later Galatea signalled again that the enemy was in force and no mere handful of light cruisers. At 2.35 the watchers on Lion saw a heavy pall of smoke to the eastward, and the course was accordingly altered to that direction, and presently to the N.E. The 1st and 3rd Light Cruiser Squadrons spread in a screen before the battle cruisers. A seaplane was sent up from Engadine (once the Cunard Liner Campania) at 3.8, and at 3.30 its first report was received. Flying at a height of 900 feet, within two miles of hostile light cruisers, it was able to identify the enemy.
