She was a fast cruiser, with a full load displacement of 13,175 long tons (13,386 t), and an intended sea speed of 32.25 knots (59.73 km/h).

Also, she carried six 21 inch (533 mm) torpedoes in a pair of triple racks, giving the ship extra firepower.

As with battlecruisers, light cruisers were intended to be fast enough to avoid engagements with more heavily armed opponents, negating the need for immensely thick armour like that found on the battleships of the day.

Edinburgh was launched on 31 March 1938, and after commissioning in July 1939 was immediately attached to the 18th Cruiser Squadron at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, as part of the British Home Fleet.

For a time, she was assigned to patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but in 1939, she was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, serving with the Humber Force.

Between the three ships damaged in the raid including Edinburgh, the cruiser Southampton, and destroyer Mohawk; sixteen Royal Navy crew died and a further 44 were wounded, although this information was not made public at the time.

When the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi was attacked and sunk defending her convoy on 23 November, Edinburgh was among the flotilla detached to search for the German commerce raider, the battleship Scharnhorst, responsible.

Shortly before Christmas, Edinburgh participated in a hunt for a German surface raider that had been reported as breaking out into the North Atlantic.

After spending a week at sea, including Christmas Day, after the report turned out to be false, she returned to port on New Year's Eve.

After an uneventful assignment, she was ordered to cover another Middle East-bound convoy, WS 9B, and docked in Gibraltar again in early July.

Edinburgh was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Stuart Bonham Carter, commanding the escort of returning Convoy QP 11: 17 ships which left Murmansk on 28 April 1942.

[3] On 30 April, the German submarine U-456 fired a torpedo into her starboard side, hitting her just forward of the space in which the gold she was carrying as part of the Soviet payment for war materials was stored.

Edinburgh was taken in tow, and tried to return to Murmansk with destroyers Foresight and Forester, and four Halcyon-class minesweepers; Gossamer, Harrier, Niger, and Hussar.

On 2 May, as she progressed at a snail's pace under tow and her own power, she was attacked off Bear Island by three large German destroyers, Hermann Schoemann, Z24 and Z25.

On the return journey, Edinburgh was carrying 4.5 long tons (4,570 kg) of gold bullion back to the UK.

[8] In total the ship had 465 gold ingots in 93 wooden boxes stored in the bomb-room just aft of where the first torpedo - fired from U-456 - struck.

In the late 1970s, the British government became increasingly anxious to recover the gold; not only because of its value but also because there was a growing concern that the wreck might be looted by unscrupulous salvagers or by the Soviet Union.

Deploying a Scorpio ROV, Dammtor took detailed film of the wreck, which allowed Wharton Williams and OSA to evaluate a recovery project.