Gains and Losses

Ships Lost by Both Sides
As can be seen from the table below, the British lost more ships than the Germans, but the German High Seas Fleet had suffered more long term damage and importantly, Admiral Scheer’s plan of exterminating Beatty’s battecruisers had failed.

The British losses of major ships were sudden and spectacular, caused by the weakness of their defensive armour that allowed German shells to pierce the British ships magazine holds resulting in massive explosions.

"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today..."
Admiral Sir David Beatty
Commander of the British Grand Fleet Battlecruisers

The British armour-piercing shells on the other hand, tended to explode outside the German ships defensive armour instead of actually penetrating and exploding within the body of the ship. As a result, some German ships with relatively light armour were able to survive direct hits.

Losses	British Grand Fleet	German High Seas Fleet
Dreadnoughts	0	0
Pre-Dreadnoughts	0	1
Battlecruisers	3	1
Armoured Cruisers	3	0
Light Cruisers	0	4
Destroyers	8	5
Personnel - killed	6,097	2,551
Personnel - wounded	510	507

Despite the above figures, several surviving German ships were so badly damaged that they took months to repair. Admiral Jellicoe on the other hand, reported twenty four battleships ready for action the day following the battle.

German newspapers naturally claimed a glorious victory based on the numbers of ships sunk. It was significant, however, that the German High Seas Fleet did not put to sea again for the rest of World War I and the Royal Navy's British Grand Fleet continued to remain in command of the sea.