Just as the _Mainz_ was seen to be sinking, the Light Cruiser Squadron arrived, and their shells rained down upon the devoted ship. She was completely riddled by shot, and her end had come. An officer who saw her sinking wrote:--
"The _Mainz_ was absolutely gallant. The last I saw of her, absolutely wrecked alow and aloft, her whole midships blazing and fuming. She had one gun forward and one aft, still spitting forth fury and defiance, like a wild cat mad with wounds."
While the _Mainz_ was sinking, the _Köln_ appeared on the starboard, and broadsides were discharged at long range. At this moment the British battle cruisers, with the white ensign streaming from their bows, were seen looming through the mist. They had arrived just at the right moment, and the worn and wearied men of the _Arethusa_, black with the grime of gun-fire, knew that victory was at hand. Commodore Tyrwhitt, of the _Arethusa_, pointed out the _Köln_ to Sir David Beatty, and his 13.5-inch guns got to work. At 10,000 yards he hit her again and again, and she turned to flee, with the flames streaming out from her like blood-red pennons.
The _Ariadne_ now hove in sight, coming from the southward. Two salvos from the terrible 13.5-inch guns were enough for her; she disappeared in the mist, burning furiously and in a sinking condition. Then the battle cruisers circled north again to finish off the _Köln_. Two salvos were fired, and she sank like a stone with all on board.
At 1.40 the battle was over. The battle cruisers turned to the northward, and the _Queen Mary_ for the second time that day was attacked by a submarine. Again she avoided a deadly torpedo by a quick turn of the helm. The great gray monsters covered the retirement of the destroyers, and by 6 p.m. all were making for port. Before midnight the whole British force was safely back in its own waters.
The enemy had lost two new cruisers--the _Mainz_ and the _Köln_--and an older vessel, the _Ariadne_. The vessel which I have called the _Strassburg_ was seriously damaged; one destroyer was sunk, and at least seven others suffered greatly. Some seven hundred Germans perished, and about three hundred were taken prisoners, amongst them the son of Admiral von Tirpitz, the chief of the German navy.