Hms Exmouth: North Sea

ND73NW 8001 7173 3553

N58 18.467 W2 28.938

NLO: Tarbat Ness [name: NH 949 878].

Formerly entered as ND73SE 8001 (unlocated).

Found with wrecks of MV Tekla and FV Trident, for which see NH98NW 8002 and ND56SW 8001 respectively.

(Classified as destroyer: date of loss cited as 21 January 1940). HMS Exmouth: this vessel was torpedoed by U-22 at German position AN1684, within an hour of the Miranda loss [ND75SE 8001].

Registration: London. 1475 tons displacemnt. Legth 105m. Beam 10m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 33.0 W2 21.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

(Proposed for designation as a Controlled Site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986: no location cited). The destroyer HMS Exmouth was sunk by a U-boat in the Moray Firth on 21 January 1940, with the loss of 189 lives.

Information from MOD (Military Maritime Graves consultation) per Mr I Oxley (Historic Scotland), 7 February 2002.

This wreck has been designated a Controlled Site under the Protection of Military Remains ACT (PMRA), 1986.

(This wreck is noted as dangerous: comprehensive list of Controlled Sites in article).

Source: Stuart Bryan in Nautical Archaeology, 2001.3, p. 12.

NMRS, MS/2745.

HMS Exmouth was sunk on 21 January 1940, being torpedoed by U-22 while escorting the Cyprian Prince. Remains from the ship were washed ashore at Lybster and buried in a single grave at Wick.

In 2001, the wreck was relocated by magnetometry and investigated by trimix diving from the MV Loyal Mediator at a depth of 2001. Identifiable features included two detached and inverted mountings ('gun turrets').

[No accurate location cited].

M Reeves and M Brill 2002.

NMRS, MS/829/43; NMRS, E/94914/NC.

HMS Exmouth was built in 1934 and sunk on 21 January 1940, being torpedoed by U-22 while under the command of Cdr R S Benson, RN and escorting the MS Cyprian Prince. Human remains from the ship were washed ashore at Lybster and buried in a single grave in Wick cemetery. The loss of the ship was reported at the time in location 58 18N 02 25W.

Such E class destroyers were essentially general purpose warships and served a variety of purposes throughout the Second World War, mainly as anti-surface and anti-submarine escorts to heavy units and merchant ships. Some were converted into minelayers and others into specialist ('hedgehog'-fitted) anti-submarine units. HMS Exmouth was somewhat larger than her nominal sisters, being 125 tons heavier and having an additional 4.7" gun amidships.

In 2001, the wreck was relocated by magnetometry and investigated by trimix diving from the MV Loyal Mediator at a depth of 2001. No bell was found and no ship's name or pendant number was identified but features recognised included two detached and inverted mountings ('gun turrets'), torpedo tubes and boat davits in recognisable positions, and minor fittings (square scuttles in recognisable pattern, 'corrugated' piping and triangular portions of deck plate). These were recorded on video.

[No accurate location specified].

M Reeves and M Brill 2002.

NMRS, MS/829/43 and MS/829/44.

Location: N58 18.467 W2 28.938 [ND 7173 3553].

Information from MOD (Military Maritime Graves consultation), 29 April 2002.

Plans and photographs of this vessel are held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

(For online catalogue of negatives, see www.nmm.ac.uk/historicphotographs).

Information from Ms G Fabri (NMM), 7 November 2003.

Listed as Designated controlled site under PMRA 1986.

(Area within 750m distance around N58 18.467 W2 28.938).

MS/5253.