sel!

This was the battle into which Jellicoe had to fit his own vast force
of twenty-four dreadnoughts without checking Beatty, without letting
the Germans get a clear run home, and without risking the loss of his
own best battleships by making one false move. At four minutes to six
Jellicoe sighted Beatty. Five minutes later he asked him for the
position of the German line. Nine minutes later he asked again. The
smoke and mist were so bad at first that it was not till 6.14 that
Beatty could say exactly. At 6.16--just two minutes later--Jellicoe's
plan was made and his orders had gone out. There, in the conning tower
of the _Iron Duke_, within those two short minutes, he had calmly
thought out every chance and change and way of going into action under
conditions which could not have been worse for him or better for the
Germans.

His twenty-four battleships were in six divisions, side by side, each
division in line ahead, and all numbered off from port (left) to
starboard (right). The leading ship of the 1st, or port wing, division
was the _King George V_. The leading ship of the 6th, or starboard
wing division, was the _Marlborough_. His own flagship, the _Iron
Duke_, led the 3rd division.

[Illustration: Jellicoe's Battle Fleet in Columns of Divisions. 6.14
P.M.]

The supreme moment had now arrived. There was not a second to lose;
for the fleets were covering more miles in an hour than armies do in a
whole day. But if he formed line on the starboard wing, the nearer to
the Germans, he would have had to wait some time till Beatty's battle
cruisers had drawn clear. During this dangerous pause, while his own
fire would have to be blanketed by Beatty, the German battle line would
have had a double British target to make hits on, and the German light
craft would have had the best chance of catching him with their
torpedoes while he was in the act of forming line. Moreover, the
German line might have concentrated on the starboard wing before the
port had taken station, and might have overlapped the whole line
afterwards. Jellicoe therefore decided to form on the port wing,
giving his own line the chances of the overlap, and then fit in astern
of Beatty. But, being ready by the time Beatty's battle cruisers were
drawing ahead, he fitted in his own line between these and the four
fast _Queen Elizabeths_ that formed the rear of Beatty's line. Thus,
in the very worst of this gigantic battle, the twelve mil