Built under yard No 938 by W.G.Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd, at High Walker on the Tyne near Newcastle as one of the D Class Light Cruisers for the Royal Navy.
05 November 1917 laid down.
19 November 1918 launched under the name HMS DUNEDIN, named after the main New Zealand city in Otago.
Displacement 4.720 tons standard, dim. 143.6 x 14.0 x 4.3m, length bpp. 135.6m.
Powered by two Brown Curtis geared steam turbines, manufactured by Hawthorn Leslie 40.000shp., twin shafts, speed 29 knots. Bunker capacity oil 1.050 tons.
Range 2.300 miles by 28 knots.
Armament: 6 – 6 inch BL, 2 – 3 inch HA, 12 – 21 inch torpedo tubes.
Crew 217 when built.
26 September 1919 final trials.
October 1919 completed at HM Dockyard at Devonport.
Between 1919 and 1924 used in the Atlantic.
November 1924 sailed from England to join the British Special Service Squadron in the Indian Ocean.
The squadron visited New Zealand and the HMD DUNEDIN made a visit at Dunedin on 30 April 1924.
10 May 1924 the squadron arrived at Auckland and on 11 May 1924 the HMS DUNEDIN took over as flagship of the New Zealand Station.
For refits she regular returned to the U.K.
She gave assistance at Napier after a heavy earthquake which most of the town destroyed on 03 February 1931, bringing relief supplies from Auckland.
She left Auckland for the last time on 15 February 1937 and via the Panama Canal arrived Portsmouth 29 March 1937 and was paid off by the New Zealand Navy in April 1937.
She was recommissioned by the Royal Navy during World War II saw service first in the Home Fleet then American and West Indies and the South Atlantic.
During the winter of 1941 was she on patrol in the South Atlantic under command of Capt. R.S. Lovatt.
The German Admiralty issued a statement on 27 November 1941 that HMS DRAGON had been sunk by a German submarine (U-124), this being a mistake for HMS DUNEDIN, which was a cruiser of the same class.
No further news of the ship came to hand until four officers and 63 ratings, the survivors from the HMS DUNEDIN were picked up. One officer of the survivors was wounded. The British Admiralty thereupon announced that HMS DUNEDIN had been lost on 24 November in the mid-Atlantic (3.00N 26.00W) northeast of Pernambuco (now Receife), Brazil.
Casualties were heavy, 26 officers including the Captain and 392 ratings being killed.
St Helena 2001 15p sg?, scott?
Source: New Zealand Naval vessels by R.J McDougall. Warships for Export Armstrong Warships 1867 – 1927 by Peter Brook. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of steam 1824 – 1962 by Charles Hocking.