HMS ''Dunedin'' was a

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

D93. She was launched from the yards of

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomot ...

, Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19 November 1918 and commissioned on 13 September 1919. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name ''Dunedin'' (named after the capital of Scotland, generally Anglicised as

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Service history

In October 1920 she, with the other three British vessels, was sent to assure protection of the unloading of munitions intended for

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, at Danzig. In 1931 she provided assistance to the town of

Napier, New Zealand Napier ( ; ) is a city on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Hawke's Bay region. It is a beachside city with a seaport, known for its sunny climate, esplanade lined with Norfolk pines, and extensive Art D ...

, after the strong Hawkes Bay earthquake, in a task force with the sloop and the cruiser .

Second World War

Early in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, ''Dunedin'' was involved in the hunt for the German battleships and after the sinking of the

armed merchant cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...

. In early 1940 ''Dunedin'' was operating in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, and there she intercepted the German merchant ship ''Heidelberg'' west of the

Windward Passage Windward Passage (; ) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth ...

. ''Heidelberg''s crew scuttled the ship before ''Dunedin'' could take her. A few days later, ''Dunedin'', in company with the Canadian destroyer , intercepted and captured the German merchant ship ''Hannover'' near

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. ''Hannover'' later became the first British

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slower type of aircraf ...

, . Between July and November, ''Dunedin'', together with the cruiser , maintained a blockade off

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, in part to bottle up three French warships, including the aircraft carrier . On 15 June 1941, ''Dunedin'' captured the German tanker ''Lothringen'' and gathered some highly classified Enigma

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

machines that she carried. The

reused ''Lothringen'' as the fleet oiler ''Empire Salvage''. ''Dunedin'' went on to capture three Vichy French vessels, ''Ville de Rouen'' off Natal, the merchant ship ''Ville de Tamatave'' east of the Saint Paul's Rocks, and finally, ''D'Entrecasteaux''. ''Dunedin'' was part of the escort of Convoy WS 5A when it was attacked by the German

heavy cruiser A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treat ...

''Admiral Hipper''.on 25 December 1940. The attack was repulsed by other ships of the escort, without losses to the convoy. ''Dunedin'' was still steaming in the Central Atlantic Ocean, just east of the St. Paul's Rocks, north east of

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, Brazil, when on 24 November 1941, at 1526 hours, two torpedoes from the sank her. Only four officers and 63 men survived out of ''Dunedin''s crew of 486 officers and men.

Citations

References

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External links

Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunedin Danae-class cruisers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Tyne 1918 ships World War II naval ships of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Maritime incidents in November 1941 World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth