 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 fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements . But the British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty , which included New Zealand . Contact was initiated at 7 : 20 AM on the 24th when the British light cruiser Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg . By 7 : 35 the Germans had spotted Beatty 's force and Hipper ordered a turn to the south at 20 knots ( 23 mph ; 37 km / h ) , believing that this would suffice if the ships that he saw to his northwest were British battleships and that he could always increased speed to Blücher 's maximum speed of 23 knots ( 26 mph ; 43 km / h ) if they were British battlecruisers . 
