At around midnight on 1 June, the German fleet was attempting to pass behind the British Grand Fleet when it encountered a line of British destroyers. "Nassau" came upon the destroyer , and in the confusion, attempted to ram her. "Spitfire" tried to evade, but could not maneuver away fast enough, and the two ships collided. "Nassau" fired her forward 11-inch guns at the destroyer. They could not depress low enough for "Nassau" to be able to score a hit; nonetheless, the blast from the guns destroyed "Spitfire"s bridge. At that point, "Spitfire" was able to disengage from "Nassau", and took with her a 6 m (20 ft) portion of "Nassau"s side plating. The collision disabled one of "Nassau"s 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, and left a 3.5 m (11.5 ft) gash above the waterline; this slowed the ship to until it could be repaired. During the confused action, "Nassau" was hit by two shells from the British destroyers, which damaged her searchlights and inflicted minor casualties.