HMS Dunedin (D93)

HMS "Dunedin" was a "Danae"-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was launched from the yards of Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19 November 1918 and commissioned on 13 September 1919. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name "Dunedin".

Early in the Second World War, she was involved in the hunt for the German battlecruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" after the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser HMS "Rawalpindi". In early 1940 "Dunedin" was operating in the Caribbean, and here intercepted the German merchant "Heidelberg" west of the Windward Passage. However her crew scuttled her before she could be captured. A few days later, "Dunedin", in company with the Canadian destroyer HMCS "Assiniboine", intercepted and captured the German merchant "Hannover" near Jamaica. The "Hannover" later became the first British escort carrier, HMS "Audacity".

On 24 November 1941 HMS "Dunedin" was in the Central Atlantic, east of St. Paul's Rocks, north east of Recife, Brazil when she was sunk at 1526 hours by two torpedoes from the German submarine "U-124". Only four officers and 63 men survived out of a crew of 486 officers and men.

References

*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1206.html HMS Dunedin at U-boat.net]
* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/light-cruiser/hms-Danae.html Ships of the Danae class]