HMS Lapwing
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Lapwing | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | sloop-of-war | 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 |
| Sea / ocean | Barents Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Russia | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 11 km from land |
| Position | 69.4333, 33.7333 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Lapwing (U62) was a modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy.
Named after the bird of the same name, she was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, on the banks of the River Clyde. She was launched on 16 July 1943.
On 20 March 1945 HMS Lapwing was escorting part of the Russian Convoy JW 65 to Murmansk, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-968. Hit amidships, she sank within 20 minutes with the loss of 158 lives. 61 men were rescued.
Diving & visiting
Lapwing’s memorial stone was unveiled in The Close Garden, Saffron Walden.
In December 1941, Saffron Walden Borough and Rural Councils decided to band together to raise £120,000 to adopt a ship and have the Saffron Walden coat of arms painted on its quarterdeck. Through a tremendous fund-raising effort the town succeeded and was allocated HMS Lapwing in June 1942, whereupon townsfolk began knitting essentials for the crew, exchanging letters and even hanging the Lapwing crest in the town hall, where it remains to this day.
Location
- Recorded position: 69.4333, 33.7333 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Barents Sea
- Nearest coast: Russia
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 Lapwing (U62) (revision 1375004756), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “HMS Lapwing Memorial”; 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
- U-307 1945 · 4 km
- HMS Bluebell 1945 · 4 km
- U-286 1945 · 7 km
- HMS Denbigh Castle 1945 · 13 km
- Tuman 1941 · 13 km
- U-387 1944 · 34 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Russia · Barents Sea