On the morning of Friday week a brilliant action was
fought in the North Sca by our ships. The completely successful enterprise is the most reassuring event that has yet happened in the war. It proves the Navy to be con- summate in daring and skill, and to be superior to the enemy in gun-power and gunnery. The plan of picking off ships in misty weather by which the Germans hoped gradually to wear down our naval strength has been splendidly turned against them. The action took place in the Heligoland Bight. The principle of the operation was a scooping movement by a strong force of destroyers and submarines headed by the Arethusa,'—the first of the twenty light-armoured fast cruisers built under the present Board of Admiralty—in order to cut off the German light craft from home and engage them at leisure in the open sea.
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