By a quarter to ten o'clock the _Lion_ had come up with and had passed the slow _Blücher_, firing broadsides into her as she went by. The _Tiger_ then passed the unfortunate German ship, also letting her have a heavy fire, and then the _Princess Royal_ did likewise. Finally the _New Zealand_ was able to engage her and later even the slow _Indomitable_ got near enough to do so. By that time the _Blücher_ was afire and one of her gun turrets, with its crew and gun, had been swept off bodily by a British shell.
Meanwhile the _Lion_, _Tiger_, and _Princess Royal_ kept straight ahead till they were able to "straddle" even the leading ship of the enemy's line. The _Tiger_ and _Lion_ poured shells into the _Seydlitz_, but were unable to do much damage to the _Moltke_. While they were thus engaged the _Princess Royal_ singled out the _Derfflinger_ for her target. The light British cruiser _Aurora_, _Arethusa_, and _Undaunted_ were far ahead of the rest of the British fleet and were firing at the _Moltke_, but thick black smoke which poured from their funnels as their engines were speeded up got between the gunners of the _Lion_ and their target, the _Moltke_, completely obscuring the latter. As a result the three light British cruisers were ordered to slow down and to take positions to the rear.
By eleven o'clock there were fires raging on both the _Seydlitz_ and the _Derfflinger_, and Admiral Hipper decided to try to save his larger ships by sacrificing the destroyers that accompanied them. Consequently the German destroyers put their bows right toward the large British ships and charged, but the fire which they drew was too much for them and they gave up this maneuver.
The British destroyer _Meteor_, which had been maintaining a perilous position between the battleships, then attempted to torpedo the _Blücher_, which had fallen far to the rearward to be abandoned by the rest of the German fleet. Badly damaged as the _Blücher_ was, the crew of one of her guns managed to get in some final shots, one of them nearly ending the career of the British destroyer. The _Arethusa_ had also come up and prepared to launch a torpedo. Cruiser and destroyer torpedoed her at about the same moment, and later, while within 200 yards of the sinking German ship the _Arethusa_ sent another torpedo at her. She now began to list, although not greatly damaged, on her port side till her keel showed. Her crew showed remarkable bravery.