Battle of Jutland - 31st May 1916 The destruction of HMS Invicible at 6:34pm When hotly engaged in close action with the German fleet, a heavy shell struck the starboard amidship 12inch turret. The flash from this shell ignited the magazine of two 12 inch turrets, which contained 50 tons of cordite. The ship broke in half and sank in 10 or 15 seconds with the loss of 1025 officers and men out of 1031. This picture of the resulting explosion was taken from HMS Inflexible the next ship in line.