Both ships were employed in escorting, towing and exercising with submarines of their flotilla, and the more notable episodes are detailed below:  From August 1914 the British and French Navies attempted to seal the English Channel against German Naval attack; "Firedrake" and 12 submarines formed the north-eastern line. No transports carrying the British Expeditionary Force were sunk, although the German Navy made little or no use of submarines against non-military ships at this stage of the war. According to the despatches of Commodore Keyes,   On 26 August 1914 Commodore Keyes hoisted his broad pennant in "Lurcher", leading "Firedrake", two D-class and six E-class submarines eastwards into the North Sea. Also at sea were the destroyers of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. The plan was to place elements of the High Seas Fleet between Royal Navy surface ships and bottomed Royal Navy submarines. Unknown to Keyes and Tyrwhitt, the Admiralty had added significant reinforcements at the last minute. Keyes' despatch reads:   Battle was joined at 7:00 on 28 August in misty conditions. Due to lack of information about reinforcements sent by the Admiralty, great potential existed for fratricidal attacks; at 8:15 am "Firedrake" and "Lurcher" came close to attacking the cruisers "Lowestoft" and "Nottingham". After the German cruiser "Mainz" was heavily damaged and disabled, Commodore Goodenough ordered his ships to cease firing on her at 12:55 pm and a rescue operation was undertaken. "Liverpool", accompanied by "Firedrake" and "Lurcher", manoeuvred close to "Mainz" in an effort to recover the surviving crew. Boats from "Liverpool" were deployed to retrieve those who had abandoned ship while "Lurcher" positioned alongside "Mainz" to transfer the crew who remained on board. By 1:10pm the Royal Navy ships withdrew as the height of tide was high enough to allow larger German Navy units to enter the area. Although the operation had been something of a shambles in the mist, the results were clear: Three German light cruisers and a destroyer sunk against no Royal Navy losses. On 22 September 1914 "Firedrake" and "Lurcher" towed the submarines "E1" and "E5" towards the Skagerrak. This was the first act in a long saga that culminated in a British submarine flotilla in the Baltic.