The action began when the two torpedo boats were sent to rescue the crew of a reconnaissance seaplane that had been forced to alight by engine trouble and to attack the trawlers.

The loss of the two A-class torpedo boats showed the commanders of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) that the Flanders Flotilla was inadequately armed to protect the coast, let alone harass British shipping in the English Channel.

After the 7th Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla was lost during the Battle off Texel (17 October 1914) German naval authorities were reluctant to commit forces for offensive operations off the coast of Flanders.

After several months, the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) relented and decided to send him a force of new coastal submarines of the UB and UC (minelayer) types and new A-class torpedo boats.

[2] The torpedo boats had been designed in late 1914, built at Hamburg and transported, in sections, overland to Antwerp, like the UB and UC coastal submarines.

The new A-class boats displaced a little over 100 long tons (100 t), had a speed of about 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h), carried two torpedoes, a 5 cm SK L/40 gun and could stow four naval mines.

The trawler Barbados which carried the flotilla commander, Lieutenant Sir James Domville RN, the senior ship of the four, was to the west-north-west, beyond Columbia.

[5] Early on 1 May 1915, two German seaplanes departed Zeebrugge to reconnoitre the Thames but one of the aircraft had engine trouble and made a forced landing.

After exchanging fire for about twenty minutes, the nearest of the two torpedo boats moved off to about 1,200 yd (1,100 m), began to lose steam and came to a stop.

The defeat at Noordhinder allowed Schroeder's pleas for reinforcements finally to be heard by the German Admiralty and on 22 May another six A-class torpedo boats were placed on order for Flanders.

[13] The British took the incident to be a hit-and-run attack, assuming that the seaplane patrol that morning had alerted Zeebrugge and had led to the German sortie against the trawlers.