Had drill after dinner. Had to wash out rooms first thing and only paraded at 7 and 10. Inspected by General of Northern Command in the morning. Out with Dunn, Moil and another chap at night. Visited the reading room at the Wesleyan chapel. Miss Inwood walked in and spoke for a minute. Received postcard from Charlie saying he would try to get across to see me.
[Written at foot of previous day’s page - ] Monday. Received news of the battle in the Baltic1. The Molke [sic] sunk by a British submarine and 2 or 3 cruisers and 8 German destroyers destroyed or damaged by the Russians, who lost one ship.
The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a major engagement between the German High Seas Fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, but British vessels were involved. The Moltke was indeed torpedoed on 19 August by the British submarine E1, but did not sink, was repaired in Hamburg, and survived Jutland and other engagements, to be scuttled at Scapa Flow at the end of the War. Moltke had previously been involved in several other incidents noted in the diaries, including the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the Raid on Yarmouth, the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby and the Battle of Dogger Bank. ↩