about eleven
o’clock
At this signal , the whole squadron started slowly in the direction of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal . The transport fleet consisted of about sixty large steamers , belonging to the North-German Lloyd , the Hamburg-America , and the Stettin companies . They were protected by the battleships Baden , Wurttemberg , Bayern , and Sachsen , the large cruisers Kaiser and Deutschland , the small cruisers Gazelle , Prinzess Wilhelm , Irene , Komet , and Meteor , and the torpedo divisions D 5 and D 6 , accompanied by their torpedo-boat divisions . The last torpedo-boat had long left the harbour , when , about eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the 15th of July , the dull thunder of the English ironclads resounded before the fortifications of the inlet of Kiel , answered by the guns of the German fortress . Bright sunshine was breaking through the light clouds when the Konig Wilhelm entered the Elbe at Brunsbuttel . The boats of the torpedo division , hastening forward , reported the mouth of the river free from English warships , and a wireless message was received from Heligoland in confirmation of this . The squadron proceeded at full speed to the north-west .