_Abdiel_, ably commanded by Commander Berwick Curtis, carried out her duties with the success which has always characterized her work.
[Sidenote: The Battle Fleet searches for enemy vessels.]
[Sidenote: _Marlborough_ sent to a base.]
[Sidenote: The enemy had returned into port.]
At daylight, 1st June, the battle fleet, being then to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef, turned to the northward in search of enemy vessels and for the purpose of collecting our own cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers. At 2.30 a.m. Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Burney transferred his flag from _Marlborough_ to _Revenge_, as the former ship had some difficulty in keeping up the speed of the squadron. _Marlborough_ was detached by my direction to a base, successfully driving off an enemy submarine attack en route. The visibility early on 1st June (three to four miles) was less than on 31st May, and the torpedo-boat destroyers, being out of visual touch, did not rejoin until 9 a.m. The British Fleet remained in the proximity of the battle-field and near the line of approach to German ports until 11 a.m. on 1st June, in spite of the disadvantage of long distances from fleet bases and the danger incurred in waters adjacent to enemy coasts from submarines and torpedo craft. The enemy, however, made no sign, and I was reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned into port. Subsequent events proved this assumption to have been correct. Our position must have been known to the enemy, as at 4 a.m. the Fleet engaged a Zeppelin for about five minutes, during which time she had ample opportunity to note and subsequently report the position and course of the British Fleet.
[Sidenote: _Warrior_ evidently foundered.]
The waters from the latitude of the Horn Reef to the scene of the action were thoroughly searched, and some survivors from the destroyers _Ardent_, _Fortune_, and _Tipperary_ were picked up, and the _Sparrowhawk_, which had been in collision and was no longer seaworthy, was sunk after her crew had been taken off. A large amount of wreckage was seen, but no enemy ships, and at 1.15 p.m., it being evident that the German Fleet had succeeded in returning to port, course was shaped for our bases, which were reached without further incident on Friday, 2nd June. A cruiser squadron was detached to search for _Warrior_, which vessel had been abandoned whilst in tow of _Engadine_ on her way to the base owing to bad weather setting in and the vessel becoming unseaworthy, but no trace of her was discovered, and a further subsequent search by a light-cruiser squadron having failed to locate her, it is evident that she foundered.