Along with the rest of the I Scouting Group battlecruisers, "Moltke" was stationed in the Wilhelmshaven Roads on the morning of the battle. By 08:50, Rear Admiral Hipper had requested permission from Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, the commander in chief of the High Seas Fleet, to send "Moltke" and "Von der Tann" to relieve the beleaguered German cruisers. "Moltke" was ready to sail by 12:10, but the low tide prevented the ships from being able to pass over the sand bar at the mouth of the Jade Estuary safely. At 14:10, "Moltke" and "Von der Tann" were able to cross the Jade bar; Hipper ordered the German cruisers to fall back to his ships, while Hipper himself was about an hour behind in the battlecruiser"Seydlitz". At 14:25, the remaining light cruisers—"Strassburg", "Stettin", "Frauenlob", "Stralsund", and "Ariadne"—rendezvoused with the battlecruisers. "Seydlitz" arrived on the scene by 15:10, while "Ariadne" succumbed to battle damage and sank. Hipper ventured forth cautiously to search for the two missing light cruisers, and "Cöln", which had already sunk. By 16:00, the German flotilla turned around to return to the Jade Estuary, arriving at approximately 20:23.