torpedo struck and damaged the engine room so much that no lights could be turned on.  In the darkness they hurried to the deck, which was slanting from her list.  In obedience to orders issued by the admiralty after the sinking of the Cressy and the ships with her, the rest of the fleet immediately sailed away from the scene, so that no more of them would be hit.  Only a light cruiser stood by the sinking Formidable.  A second torpedo struck her and this had the effect of letting water into her hold on the side which was slowly coming out of the water.  She took a position with even keel after that, and this fact enabled most of her crew to get off safely before she sank.

Once more the Germans were to attempt a raid on the coast cities of England.  The date of this third attempt was January 24, 1915.  This time the British were a bit better prepared, for a squadron of battle cruisers, consisting of the Lion, Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand, and Indomitable, put out from a port in the north of England at about the same time that the Germans left their base.  All of these ships, with the exception of the last named, were quite fast, having speeds of from 25 to 28.5 knots; they were at the same time carrying heavy armament—­13.5-inch guns in the main batteries.  In company with them went four cruisers of what is known in England as the “town class”; these were the Nottingham, Birmingham, Lowestoft, and Southampton, together with the three light cruisers Arethusa, Aurora, and Undaunted, and a squadron of destroyers.  The German fleet which was engaged in this raid consisted of the Seydlitz, Moltke, Derfflinger, and Bluecher, in company with a fleet of destroyers.  The German ships were not quite as fast as the English ships, nor did they carry guns of such range or destructive power as their British opponents.

Early in the first hours of January 24, these two forces, unknown to each other were steaming head on, the Germans taking a course leading northwest and the English a course leading southeast.  At twenty minutes past seven in the morning the Aurora first sighted the enemy and engaged him immediately with her two 6-inch guns, sending at the same time word of her discovery to Admiral Beatty.  Admiral Hipper, the German commander, as soon as he knew the enemy had sighted him, turned about and started to steam in a southeasterly direction.

In view of the results of this battle, it is best to go into the matter of the tactics involved.  Tactics may be of two kinds—­spontaneous or premeditated.  When two hostile fleets meet on the high sea far from the base of either, the object of each is the complete destruction of the other, and the tactics employed are spontaneous.  Such an action was that off Coronel.  But on a closed sea such as the North Sea spontaneous tactics can rarely be used, for the reason that naval bases are too near, and from these there may slyly come reenforcements to one or the other or to both of the fighting fleets, making the arrangement of traps an easy matter.  This is particularly true of the North Sea, on which it is possible for a fleet to leave Cuxhaven early in the evening and to be at Scarborough early the following morning.  In addition, sailing is restricted because an unusually large portion of its waters is too shallow to permit of the passage of large ships.