 In the meantime Blücher had been heavily damaged by fire from all the other battlecruisers ; her speed had dropped to 17 knots ( 20 mph ; 31 km / h ) and her steering gear had been jammed . Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her at 10 : 48 am . Six minutes later Beatty 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 he failed to hoist the ' Submarine Warning ' flag because most of Lion 's signal halyards had been shot away . Almost immediately afterward Lion lost her remaining dynamo to the rising water which knocked out all remaining light and power . He ordered ' Course Northeast ' at 11 : 02 to bring his ships back to their pursuit of Hipper . He also hoisted ' Attack the rear of the enemy ' on the other halyard although there was no connection between the two signals . This caused Rear @-@ Admiral Sir Gordon Moore , temporarily commanding in New Zealand , to think that the signals meant to attack Blücher , which was about 8 @,@ 000 yards ( 7 @,@ 300 m ) to the northeast . So they turned away from the pursuit of Hipper 's main body and engaged Blücher . Beatty tried to correct the mistake , but he was so far behind the leading battlecruisers that his signals could not be read amidst the smoke and haze . 
