starboard side, being only able to make with of water on board and 11 men killed. While the rest of the squadron was stopped for Boedicker to transfer to Lützow and for Seydlitz to escape the minefield, the German ships sighted and avoided torpedoes from one or more British submarines. Seydlitz returned to the river Jade, accompanied by two destroyers and Zeppelin L-7. To avoid other possible mines and submarines, the battlecruiser force altered course to a route along the coast of East Friesland. This had previously been avoided, because in the clear weather the ships risked being sighted from the islands of Rottum and Schiermonnikoog and their movements reported to the British. It was assumed that the British would now be alerted to the movements of the German ships. The British already knew that the German fleet had sailed at midday. More information arrived at 20:15, when an intercepted wireless message gave the information that they were headed for Yarmouth. At 15:50, the British fleet had been placed on two hours readiness and at 19:05 were ordered to sail south from Scapa Flow. Around midnight, the Harwich Force (Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt) of three light cruisers and 18 destroyers was ordered to move north. Around 20:00, German ships received a message from the Naval Staff, that a large British fleet was operating off the Belgian coast and that another large force had been sighted off Norway on 23 April. This suggested that the British Fleet was still divided, giving rise to optimism that the operation would go off as planned, despite the mining of Seydlitz. At 21:30, another message indicated that British patrol boats off the Belgian coast were heading back to harbour, which was interpreted as confirmation that British submarines had reported the German movements. By 24 April the northern British ships had returned to harbour for coaling and were unaware of the moves. The ships off the Flanders coast included 12 additional destroyers from the Harwich Force, which had been sent to assist with a barrage of the coast. The German airships, having dropped their bombs, returned to the bombardment force. Visibility over land was poor, the winds were unfavourable and the towns were better defended than had been thought. The Zeppelins that had bombed Norwich, Lincoln, Harwich and Ipswich had been fired on by British ships but none had been damaged. At about 03:50, the light cruiser