It was employed patrolling an area of the North Sea known as the Broad Fourteens in support of vessels guarding the northern entrance to the Channel.

The incident eroded confidence in the government and damaged the reputation of the Royal Navy, at a time when many countries were still considering which side they might support in the war.

[2] Their status meant that most of the time they were manned by "nucleus crews" an innovation introduced by Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher a few years earlier.

As a reserve formation, the 7th Cruiser Squadron had no flag officer until 10 June, when Rear-Admiral Gordon Moore—Third Sea Lord—was given the command upon taking leave from the Admiralty.

The manœuvres took place and on 9 August Rear-Admiral Moore struck his flag and on the 16th the squadron was reduced back to reserve commission.

Their task was to patrol the relatively shallow waters of the Dogger Bank and the Broad Fourteens in the North Sea, supported by destroyers of the Harwich Force.

Churchill—in consultation with the First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenberg—agreed that the cruisers should be withdrawn and wrote a memo stating: The Bacchantes ought not to continue on this beat.

[13] As Hogue sank, the captain of Cressy knew that the squadron was being attacked by a submarine and should have tried to flee; this was not yet considered the proper action to take.

Zig-zagging had not been taken seriously by ships' captains who had not experienced submarine attacks; the tactic thereafter was made compulsory in dangerous waters.

All big warships were instructed never to approach a ship severely disabled by mine or torpedo but to steam away and leave the rescue to smaller vessels.

[15] Three weeks later, the German war hero Weddigen—now operating U-9 off Aberdeen—torpedoed and sank Hawke, another British cruiser that was not zig-zagging in hostile waters.

Weddigen was killed in March 1915 during a German raid in the Pentland Firth when his submarine—U-29—was intentionally rammed by the battleship Dreadnought.

The remnants of the 7th Cruiser Squadron was reconstituted the following year as part of the Grand Fleet, which contained many better armoured and more modern ships than Bacchantes but in 1916 the 7th was disbanded again.