with Elbing still firing at long range. She was joined by and , but the three cruisers had to cease fire by 16:17, as the British had drawn out of range. About fifteen minutes later, the three cruisers engaged a seaplane launched by the seaplane tender . They failed to score any hits, but the aircraft was forced off after which its engine broke down and it was forced to land. The three cruisers then returned to their stations ahead of the German battlecruisers. At around 18:30, Elbing and the rest of II Scouting Group encountered the cruiser ; they opened fire and scored several hits on the ship. As both sides' cruisers disengaged, Rear Admiral Horace Hood's three battlecruisers intervened. His flagship scored a hit on Wiesbaden that exploded in her engine room and disabled the ship. Elbing and Frankfurt each fired a torpedo at the British battlecruisers, though both missed. Elbing was briefly engaged by the battlecruisers at very long range, though she was not hit. At around 20:15, Elbing lost her port engine due to leaks in her boiler condensers. This limited her speed to for the next four hours. II Scouting Group, along with the battlecruisers and had been ordered to take station ahead of the German line for its night cruising formation. Elbing was still having problems with her boiler condensers, and was unable to keep up the speed necessary to reach the front of the line, and so she fell in with IV Scouting Group. At 23:15, Elbing and spotted the British cruiser and several destroyers. They used the British recognition signal and closed to before turning on their searchlights and opening fire. Castor was hit seven times and set on fire, forcing the British to turn away. As they did, they fired several torpedoes at Elbing and Hamburg. One passed underneath Elbing but failed to explode. While this engagement was still on-going, the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron arrived and engaged IV Scouting Group. Elbing was hit once, which destroyed her wireless transmitting station and killed four men and wounded twelve. Shortly after midnight, the German fleet ran into the British rear destroyer screen. Elbing was by this time steaming on the port side of the German line along with Hamburg and Rostock. The dreadnought —the first ship in the German line—opened fire first, followed quickly by Elbing, the other two cruisers, and the