The total loss of life in the battle amounted to approximately 4, British, including 333 officers; and probably 4,000 or more Germans.  Rear-Admiral Horace Hood, second in command of the battle-cruiser fleet, went down with the Invincible.  Rear-Admiral Arbuthnot went down with the Defense.

STORY OF THE BATTLE.

The great naval battle, which may go down in history as the battle of the Skager Rack, was fought in the eastern waters of the North Sea, off the coast of Denmark.  It lasted for many hours, fighting being continued through the night of May 31-June 1.  In general, the battle area extended from the Skager Rack southward to Horn Reef off the Danish coast, the center of the fighting being about 100 miles north of Helgoland, the main German naval base in the North Sea.

Both in the number of lives and the tonnage lost, the battle was the greatest sea-fight in history, as well as the first in which modern dreadnaughts have been engaged.  Never before have two naval forces of such magnitude as the British and German high-sea fleets engaged in combat.

The greatest previous tonnage loss was during the Japanese-Russian war.  In the naval battle of Tsushima in May, 1905, the loss totaled 93, tons.  Twenty-one Russian craft were sunk in this fight.

The text of the first British admiralty statement was in part as follows: 

“On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, a naval engagement took place off the coast of Jutland.  The British ships on which the brunt of the fighting fell were the battle-cruiser fleet and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by four fast battleships.  Among these the losses were heavy.

“The German battle fleet aided by low visibility avoided a prolonged action with our main forces.  As soon as they appeared on the scene the enemy returned to port, though not before receiving severe damage from our battleships.”

The battle was one in which no quarter was asked or even possible.  There were no surrenders, and the ships lost went down and carried with them virtually the whole crews.  Only the Warrior, which was towed part way from the scene of battle to a British port, was an exception.

Of the thousand men on the Queen Mary, only a corporal’s guard was accounted for.  The same was true of the Invincible, while there were no survivors reported from the Indefatigable, the Defense or the Black Prince.

TELL OF BATTLE HORRORS.

After the battle there were many stories of ships sinking with a great explosion:  of crews going down singing the national anthem; of merchant ships passing through a sea thick with floating bodies.

From survivors came thrilling stories of the horrors and humanities of the battle.  The British destroyer Shark acted as a decoy to bring the German ships into the engagement.  It was battered to pieces by gunfire, and a half dozen sailors, picked up clinging to a buoy by a Danish ship, told of its commander and two seamen serving its only remaining gun until the last minute, when the commander’s leg was blown off.