HMS Edinburgh 1942
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Edinburgh | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1942 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | light cruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | Battle of the Atlantic | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Barents Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | 72.0000, 35.0000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Edinburgh was a Town-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, which served during the Second World War. She was one of the last two Town class cruisers, which formed the Edinburgh sub-class. Edinburgh saw a great deal of combat service during the Second World War, especially in the North Sea and the Arctic Sea, where she was sunk by torpedoes in 1942.
Diving & visiting
On the return journey, Edinburgh was carrying 4.5 long tons (4,570 kg) of gold bullion back to Britain. The consignment, which had a value of about £1.5 million sterling in 1942 (£61 million in 2025 without taking into account the increase in the value of gold) was part-payment by the USSR for the supplies of war material and military equipment from the Western Allies. The ship had 465 gold ingots in 93 wooden boxes stored in the bomb-room just aft of where the first torpedo, fired from U-456, struck.
Nine years after the Second World War, the British government offered the salvage rights on Edinburgh to the British salvage company, Risdon Beazley Ltd., in 1954.
Location
- Recorded position: 72.0000, 35.0000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Barents Sea
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Edinburgh (16) (revision 1375014457), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Gold salvage”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Bahamas 101 km
- U-354 1944 · 171 km
Other wrecks of the Battle of the Atlantic
- U-583 1941
- U-65 1941
- U-651 1941
- U-95 1941
- U-99 1941
- HMS Manchester 1942
- HMS Naiad 1942
- U-132 1942
- U-133 1942
- U-136 1942
All 704 wrecks of the Battle of the Atlantic →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · Barents Sea · Second World War