“Officers of the fleet also reported passing a closely engaged German battle-cruiser which was left behind while the British pursued the Germans.  On their return this vessel was missing.  Judging from its previous plight it must now be at the bottom of the sea.  This accounts for two of the enemy’s battle-cruisers, and we have their admission that they had lost two battleships.

“Zeppelins did not play the important part attributed to them.  Only one appeared.  It remained in action a brief time, retiring under heavy fire, evidently badly damaged.  Weather conditions were such that it is doubtful whether any aircraft would have been of much service.

“The enemy sprang no surprises.  We saw nothing of any 17-inch guns.  No tricks were used which were not already known in naval warfare.

“From the standpoint of actual strength the navy’s loss in personnel, while great, was not serious, as we have plenty of men to replace them.  But the deaths of so many gallant officers and men have caused profound grief.

“Admiral Hood went down with his flagship Invincible, in the words of Admiral Beaty’s report, ’leading his division into action with the most inspiring courage.’  His flag captain, Cay, went down with him.  Capt.  Sowerby, former British naval attache at Washington, perished with his ship, the Indefatigable, while Capt.  Prowse died on the Queen Mary.”

BODIES FLOATING IN THE SEA.

From Copenhagen it was reported on June 3 that hundreds of bodies, many of them horribly mutilated by explosions, and great quantities of debris were drifting about in the North Sea near the scene of the battle.  All steamers arriving at Danish ports reported sighting floating bodies and bits of wreckage.

The steamer Para picked up a raft aboard which were three German survivors from the torpedo boat V-48.  They had clung to the raft for forty-eight hours and were semi-conscious when rescued.  They reported that ninety-nine of the V-48 crew perished and that in all about twenty German torpedo boats were destroyed.

Other German sailors, rescued by Scandinavian steamers, described the Teutonic losses in the Jutland battle as colossal.  A number of the crew of the cruiser Wiesbaden and men from several German torpedo boats were rescued and brought to Copenhagen.  They reported that many of their comrades, after floating for thirty-six hours on rafts without food or water, drank the sea water, became insane and jumped into the ocean.

The German survivors said that several of their torpedo boats and submarines were capsized by the British shells and sank instantly.  Bodies of both British and German sailors were washed ashore on the coast of Jutland.

OFFICER’S STORY OF THE FIGHT.

Survivors who arrived at Edinburgh on June 5 from British destroyers which made a massed attack on a German battleship in the battle off Jutland, were convinced that they sent to the bottom the dreadnaught Hindenburg, the pride of the German navy.  These sailors said that the Hindenburg was struck successively by four torpedoes while the destroyers dashed in alongside of its hull, tearing it to pieces until the mighty ship reeled and sank.