HMS Exeter
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Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Exeter | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | heavy 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 | World War II, Battle of the River Plate | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Java Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | -5.0000, 111.0000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Exeter was the second and last York-class heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s, and the last heavy cruiser the Royal Navy would ever build. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–1936, she spent the bulk of the 1930s assigned to the Atlantic Fleet or the North America and West Indies Station. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser was assigned to patrol South American waters against German commerce raiders. Exeter was one of three British cruisers that fought the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, later that year in the Battle of the River Plate. She was severely damaged during the battle, and she was under repair for over a year.
After repairs were completed the ship spent most of 1941 on convoy escort duties before she was transferred to the Far East after the start of the Pacific War in December. Exeter was generally assigned to escorting convoys to and from Singapore during the Malayan Campaign, and she continued on those duties in early February 1942 as the Japanese prepared to invade the Dutch East Indies.
Diving & visiting
The wreck was discovered and positively identified by a group of exploration divers specifically searching for Exeter aboard MV Empress on 21 February 2007. The wreck was found lying on its starboard side in Indonesian waters at a depth of about 200 feet (61 m), 90 miles (140 km) north-west of Bawean Island – some 60 miles (97 km) from the estimated sinking position given by Captain Gordon after the war. In July 2008, HMS Kent performed a memorial service over the wreck of Exeter.
Location
- Recorded position: -5.0000, 111.0000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Java 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 Exeter (68) (revision 1375116481), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck site”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
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Other wrecks of the World War II
- HMS Thetis 1918
- Admiral Graf Spee 1939
- HMS Blanche 1939
- HMS Duchess 1939
- HMS Rawalpindi 1939
- HMS Seahorse 1939
- SS Binnendijk 1939
- SS Fanad Head 1939
- Stanbrook 1939
- U-12 1939
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · Java Sea