Site Navigation:

Site Search:

Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.

HMS Diomede in Esquimalt Harbour

by John MacFarlane 2016

HMS Diomede

HMS Diomede in Esquimalt Harbour 1941 (Photo from the MacFarlane Family collection. )

HMS Diomede was a Danae–class cruiser of the Royal Navy built at the very end of the First World War and launched in 1922. Between the wars, she served on the China Station, Pacific waters, East Indies Waters and from 1936 onwards, in reserve. In World War II she performed four years of arduous war duty, during which time she captured the German blockade runner Idarwald.

HMS Diomede

HMS Diomede in Esquimalt Harbour 1941 (Photo from the MacFarlane Family collection. )

Diomede was attached to the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the America and West Indies Station on shipping protection and patrolling duty. On 8 December 1940 she chased the German blockade runner Idarwald from Tampico, Mexico. Before a capture could be effected the crew of the German freighter set it afire and scuttled it off Cabo Corrientes, Cuba.

In July to August she underwent a refit at Bermuda. In September to November, on completion of trials she was transferred to the Pacific Ocean for defence of trade and patrol and deployed off west coasts of North and South American continents and assumed duty as the Flagship of the 8th Cruiser Squadron.

In early 1942 Diomede joined the 9th Cruiser Squadron as part of the South Atlantic and West African Squadron.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2016) HMS Diomede in Esquimalt Harbour. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Diomede_HMS.php

Nauticapedia

Site News: November 20, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,591 vessel histories (with 16,203 images and 13,900 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 40,000 processed so far this year.

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who continues (almost every day for the last couple of years) to proof read thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 14,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.

© 2002-2023