 This was successful and the British lost sight of the Germans until 8 : 05 when Castor spotted smoke bearing west @-@ northwest . Ten minutes later she 'd closed the range enough to identify German torpedo boats and engaged them . Beatty turned west upon hearing the sounds of gunfire and spotted the German battlecruisers only 8 @,@ 500 yards ( 7 @,@ 800 m ) away . Inflexible opened fire at 8 : 20 , followed almost immediately by the rest of Beatty 's battlecruisers . New Zealand and Indomitable concentrated their fire on Seydlitz and hit her five times before she turned west to disengage . Shortly after 8 : 30 the pre @-@ dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve 's II Battle Squadron were spotted and fire switched to them . The Germans only were able to fire a few rounds at them due to the poor visibility and turned away to the west . The British battlecruisers hit the German ships several times before they blended into the haze around 8 : 40 . After this Beatty changed course to south @-@ southeast and maintained that course , ahead of both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet , until 2 : 55 the next morning when the order was given to reverse course . 
