HMS Dunedin was a Danae-class

Danae class cruiser

The Danae or D-class was a class of light cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of World War I and that survived to see service in World War II.-Design:...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was launched from the yards of Armstrong Whitworth

Armstrong Whitworth

Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...

, 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.

In 1931 she provided assistance to the town of Napier, New Zealand

Napier, New Zealand

Napier is a New Zealand city with a seaport, located in Hawke's Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The population of Napier is about About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighboring cities are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities"...

, after the strong Hawkes Bay earthquake

1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on Tuesday 3 February 1931, killing 256 and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster...

, in a task force with HMS Veronica

HMS Veronica

HMS Veronica was an Acacia-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Dunlop Bremner & Company, Port Glasgow. She was laid down in January 1915, launched on 27 May 1915 and completed in August 1915...

 and HMS Diomede.

Early in the Second World War, HMS Dunedin was involved in the hunt for the German battleships Scharnhorst

German battleship Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...

 and Gneisenau

German battleship Gneisenau

Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included one other ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935...

 after the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi

HMS Rawalpindi

HMS Rawalpindi was a British armed merchant cruiser that was sunk during the Second World War.-Merchant service:...

.

In early 1940 Dunedin was operating in the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

, and there she intercepted the German merchant ship Heidelberg west of the Windward Passage

Windward Passage

The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti.80km wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth of 1,700m...

. However the Heidelberg's crew scuttled her before the Dunedin could take her. A few days later, the Dunedin, in company with the Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine

HMCS Assiniboine

Two Canadian naval units have been named HMCS Assiniboine. was a River class destroyer that served the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. She was formerly the Royal Navy's Interwar Standard C class destroyer . was a St...

, intercepted and captured the German merchant ship Hannover near Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

. The Hannover later became the first British escort carrier, HMS Audacity

HMS Audacity (D10)

|HMS Audacity was a British escort carrier of the Second World War and the first of her kind. She was originally the German merchant ship Hannover, captured by the Royal Navy in the West Indies in March 1940 and renamed Sinbad, then Empire Audacity. She was converted and commissioned as HMS Empire...

. Between July and November, the Dunedin, together with HMS Trinidad, maintained a blockade off Martinique, in part to bottle up three French warships, including the aircraft carrier Bearn.

On 15 June 1941, HMS Dunedin captured the German tanker Lothringen and gathered some highly classified Enigma

Enigma machine

An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...

 cipher

Cipher

In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...

 machines that she carried. The Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 reused the Lothringen as the fleet oiler Empire Salvage. The Dunedin went on to capture three Vichy French vessels, the Ville de Rouen off Natal, the merchant ship Ville de Tamatave east of the St. Paul's Rocks, and finally, the D'Entrecasteaux.

HMS Dunedin was still steaming in the Central Atlantic Ocean, just east of the St. Paul's Rocks, north east of Recife

Recife

Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...

, Brazil, when on 24 November 1941, at 1526 hours, two torpedoes from the German submarine U-124 sank her. Only four officers and 63 men survived out of the Dunedin's crew of 486 officers and men.