SMS Leipzig SMS " Leipzig " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Leipzig " " ) was the sixth of seven s of the Imperial German Navy , named after the city of Leipzig . She was begun by AG Weser in Bremen in 1904 , launched in March 1905 and commissioned in April 1906 . Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tube s , " Leipzig " was capable of a top speed of . " Leipzig " spent her career on overseas stations ; at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , she was cruising off the coast of Mexico . After rejoining with the East Asia Squadron , she proceeded to South American waters , where she participated in the Battle of Coronel , where the German squadron overpowered and sank a pair of British armored cruiser s . A month later , she again saw action at the Battle of the Falkland Islands , which saw the destruction of the East Asia Squadron . " Leipzig " was chased down and sunk by the cruisers and ; the majority of her crew was killed in the battle , with only 18 survivors . Construction . " Leipzig " was ordered under the contract name " N " and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1904 and launched on 21 March 1905 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 April 1906 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two triple - expansion engine s , designed to give for a top speed of . The engines were powered by ten coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers . " Leipzig " carried up to of coal , which gave her a range of at . She had a crew of 14 officers and 274 – 287 enlisted men . The ship was armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 40 guns in single mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three on either side , and two were placed side by side aft . The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . She was also equipped with two torpedo tube s with five torpedo es . They were submerged in the hull on the broadside . She was also fitted to carry fifty naval mine s . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to thick . The conning tower had thick sides , and the guns were protected by thick shields . Service history . Franz von Hipper served as the ship ' s first commanding officer , from her commissioning in April until September , when " Leipzig " was deployed overseas , and was assigned to the East Asia Squadron , along with the armored cruiser s and and the light cruisers and . The ship was cruising off the west coast of Mexico at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 to show the flag in the Americas . In addition , " Leipzig " had been tasked with safeguarding German nationals in Mexico during a period of unrest . She spent the first weeks of the conflict patrolling for British - flagged merchantmen off San Francisco before stopping in the Galapagos Islands on 18 August , on her way to South America . A week later , " Leipzig " sank a British freighter carrying sugar and then proceeded to the Peruvian coast by the 28th . She stopped in Guaymas in neutral Mexico to take on a fresh load of coal on 8 September . On 14 October , she joined the rest of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee ' s East Asia Squadron at Easter Island ; she brought with her three colliers . On 18 October , the Squadron departed , bound for South America ; they stopped in the Juan Fernández Islands while en route , and by 26 October , they were approaching Mas a Fuera . They then steamed to Valparaiso , Chile , where they received intelligence that indicated that the British cruiser was anchored in Coronel . Von Spee decided to proceed to Coronel to ambush the British ship when it left port . " Glasgow " was in fact joined by the armored cruisers and . Battle of Coronel . While patrolling off Coronel , " Leipzig " stopped a Chilean barque and searched her , but since she was a neutral vessel , and not carrying contraband , the Germans let her go . At 16 : 00 on 1 November , " Leipzig " spotted a column of smoke in the distance , followed by a second ship at 16 : 17 , and a third at 16 : 25 . The British spotted " Leipzig " at approximately the same time , and the two squadrons formed into lines of battle . " Leipzig " was the third ship in the German line , behind the two armored cruisers . At 18 : 07 , von Spee issued the order " Fire distribution from left " , meaning that each ship would engage its opposite number ; the Germans fired first , at 18 : 34 . " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " quickly wrecked their British counterparts , while " Leipzig " fired at " Glasgow " without success . At 18 : 49 , " Glasgow " hit " Leipzig " , but the shell was a dud and did not explode . " Leipzig " and hit " Glasgow " five times before von Spee ordered " Leipzig " to close with the stricken " Good Hope " and torpedo it . A rain squall obscured the ship , and by the time " Leipzig " reached " Good Hope " s position , the latter had sunk . Unaware of the sinking of " Good Hope " , no rescue operations were mounted by " Leipzig " s crew . By 20 : 00 , " Leipzig " encountered " Dresden " in the gathering darkness , and the two initially mistook each other for hostile warships , though they quickly established their identity . " Leipzig " emerged from the battle essentially unscathed , and with no wounded crewmen . In the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel , von Spee decided to return to Valparaiso to receive further orders ; while " Scharnhorst " , " Gneisenau " , and " Nürnberg " went into the harbor , " Leipzig " and " Dresden " escorted the colliers to Mas a Fuera . The rest of the East Asia Squadron joined them there on 6 November ; the cruisers restocked their coal and other supplies . On 10 November , " Leipzig " and " Dresden " were sent to Valparaiso , arriving on the 13th . Five days later , they rejoined the Squadron approximately west of Robinson Crusoe Island ; the unified Squadron then proceeded to the Gulf of Penas , arriving on 21 November . There , they coaled and prepared to make the long voyage around Cape Horn . The British , shocked by their defeat at Coronel , had meanwhile dispatched the powerful battlecruiser s and , under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee , to hunt down and destroy von Spee ' s ships . They departed Britain on 11 November and reached the Falkland Islands on 7 December , having been joined on the way by the armored cruisers , , and and the light cruisers and the battered " Glasgow " . Battle of the Falkland Islands . On 26 November , the East Asia Squadron departed the Gulf of Penas , bound for Cape Horn and the Atlantic and reached the Cape on 2 December . While off the Cape , " Leipzig " took the Canadian sailing ship " Drummuir " as a prize ; the ship was carrying of coal , which was transferred to the colliers " Baden " and " Santa Isabel " at Picton Island . On the night of 6 December , von Spee held a conference with the ship commanders to discuss his proposed attack on the Falklands ; " Fregattenkapitän " Haun , the commander of " Leipzig " , along with the commanders from " Gneisenau " and " Dresden " , opposed the plan and favored bypassing the Falklands to wage commerce war off La Plata . Nevertheless , von Spee made the decision to attack the Falklands on the morning of 8 December . The Germans approached Port Stanley , the capital of the Falklands , early on the morning of 8 December ; the British quickly spotted them , and raised steam to go out and meet them . Von Spee initially thought the smoke clouds to be the British burning their coal stocks to prevent the Germans from seizing them . Upon realizing the presence of the powerful British squadron , he broke off the attack and turned to flee . The British quickly steamed out of the harbor in pursuit . By 12 : 55 , the battlecruisers had caught up to the retreating Germans , and opened fire on " Leipzig " , the last ship in the German line , though she was not hit . Von Spee ordered the light cruisers to detach and flee while " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " turned on their pursuers , in the hope that he could cover their escape . In response , Sturdee sent his cruisers to chase down " Nürnberg " , " Dresden " , and " Leipzig " . " Glasgow " pursued " Leipzig " , and quickly caught up , opening fire by 14 : 40 . After about twenty minutes of firing , " Leipzig " was hit ; she turned to port to open the range , before turning to starboard in order to bring her full broadside into action . In the ensuing action , both ships were hit several times , forcing " Glasgow " to break off and fall behind the more powerful armored cruisers . " Leipzig " was battered severely by " Cornwall " and " Kent " and set on fire ; she nevertheless remained in action and continued to fight . In the course of the engagement , " Leipzig " hit " Cornwall " eighteen times , causing a significant list to port . She fired three torpedoes at the British ships , but failed to score any hits with them . At 19 : 20 , Haun issued the order to scuttle his wrecked ship ; the British approached and opened fire on the stricken cruiser at close range , killing large numbers of the crew . The British also destroyed a cutter filled with survivors , killing all of them . " Leipzig " finally capsized and sank at 21 : 05 , with Haun going down with his ship . Only eighteen men were pulled from the freezing water .