 Mainz was by now completely disabled . Her engines were stopped and her guns had ceased firing . Shortly before 14 : 00 , Lurcher came alongside and took off the wounded German sailors . At 14 : 10 , Mainz rolled over to port and quickly sank at the position 53 ° 58 ' N and 6 ° 42 ' E ; the survivors now in the water gave three cheers for their ship . The British rescued 348 survivors ; 89 men , including the ship 's commander , were killed in the battle . Among the survivors was Oberleutnant zur See ( Sub @-@ Lieutenant ) Wolfgang von Tirpitz , the son of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , the architect of the German fleet . Winston Churchill , then the First Lord of the Admiralty , informed Tirpitz via the US embassy in Berlin that his son survived the battle . In the course of the engagement , the British sank two more German cruisers : Mainz 's sister Cöln and Ariadne , with minimal losses to themselves . 
