Indies Squadron on 1 November during the Battle of Coronel. Princess Royal arrived at Halifax on 21 November, then spent several days off New York City before she steamed down to the Caribbean to guard against the possibility that Graf Spee would use the Panama Canal. The East Asia Squadron was sunk off the Falkland Islands on 7 December, and Princess Royal left Kingston, Jamaica, en route to the UK on 19 December. Battle of Dogger Bank On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper sortied to clear the Dogger Bank of any British vessels that might be collecting intelligence on German movements. The British were reading the German coded messages, and a large battlecruiser force under Beatty sailed to intercept. Contact was initiated at 07:20 on the 24th, when the British light cruiser Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser . By 07:35, the Germans had seen Beatty's force; Hipper – aboard – ordered his ships south at , thinking he could outpace any British battleships, and could increase to Blüchers maximum speed of if the pursuing ships were battlecruisers. Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to catch the Germans before they could escape. The leading ships – Lion, Princess Royal and – pursued at , and Lion opened fire at 08:52 at a range of . The other ships followed a few minutes later, but the extreme range and decreasing visibility meant they did not start scoring hits until 09:09. The German battlecruisers opened fire two minutes later at a range of and concentrated their fire on Lion, hitting her once. At 09:35, Beatty signalled to "engage the corresponding ships in the enemy's line", but Tigers captain – believing that was already engaging Blücher – joined Lion in attacking Seydlitz, which left unengaged and able to fire on Lion without risk. Moltke and combined their fire to badly damage Lion over the next hour, even with Princess Royal attacking Derfflinger. Meanwhile, Blücher had been heavily damaged; her speed had dropped to , and her steering gear was jammed. Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her at 10:48. Six minutes later, he spotted what he thought was a submarine periscope on the starboard bow and ordered an immediate 90° turn to port to avoid the submarine, although the submarine warning flag was not raised because most of Lions signal halyards had been shot away.