HMS Esk 1940
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Esk | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1940 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | destroyer | 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 | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | North Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Netherlands | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 76 km from land |
| Position | 53.4433, 3.8000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Esk was an E-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. She was designed to be easily converted into a fast minelayer by removing some guns and her torpedo tubes. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36, during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Esk was converted to a minelayer when World War II began in September 1939, and spent most of her time laying mines. During the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940, the ship laid mines in Norwegian territorial waters before the Germans invaded, but was recalled to home waters to resume her minelaying duties in early May. During one such sortie, Esk was sunk during the Texel Disaster on the night of 31 August 1940, when she ran into a newly laid German minefield.
Location
- Recorded position: 53.4433, 3.8000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Sea
- Nearest coast: Netherlands
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 Esk (H15) (revision 1375233062), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; 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 Ivanhoe 1940 · 3 km
- HMS Aboukir 1914 · 49 km
- HMS E47 63 km
- Doris 73 km
- HMS Lutine 1799 · 82 km
- Palmwood shipwreck 87 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- Stanbrook 1939
- U-12 1939
- U-27 1939
- U-39 1939
- USS Sailfish 1939
- Artigliere 1940
- Bartolomeo Colleoni 1940
- French destroyer Maillé Brézé 1940
- German destroyer ZH1 1940
- German submarine U-15 1940
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Netherlands · North Sea · Second World War