| Hiiu Shoal Nekmangrund | |
| Native Name: | Hiiu Madal |
| Native Name Lang: | et |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Estonia |
| Subdivision Type1: | County |
| Subdivision Name1: | Hiiu County |
| Subdivision Type2: | Sea |
| Subdivision Name2: | Baltic Sea |
| Subdivision Type3: | Area |
| Subdivision Name3: | Off Hiiumaa |
| Subdivision Type4: | Minimum depth |
| Subdivision Name4: | 1.2 m |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
Hiiu Shoal (Estonian: Hiiu madal) or Nekmangrund is a shoal located in the Baltic Sea, off the northwestern shores of Hiiumaa Island.[1] It is known as Neckmansgrund in Swedish, as Nekmangrund in Russian and as Neckmangrund in German, the loan translation in Estonian being Näkimadalad.[2]
The submerged shoal is 9 kilometers long and 5.5 kilometers wide. Its shallowest point is only 1.2 meters deep at the time of the lowest astronomical tide.
Since it is a dangerous shoal for ships entering the Gulf of Finland while approaching St. Petersburg, the Nekmangrund —a lightship of the Russian Hydrographic Office, was anchored on the reef until 1941. During the war, the lightship Nekmangrund ("Hiiumadal" Estonian) was ordered to leave the shoal and return to Tallinn. During the night of June 23, 1941, at 1:30 in the night, it was hit by a German torpedo and sunk[3] with the loss of at least 6 lives (there was confusion about who actually was aboard at the time).[4]
The wreck of the ship lies now on the bottom of the Hiiu Shoal.[5]
The, a cargo ship of the United Kingdom, ran aground on the Nekmangrund Shoal on 19 June 1933. She was refloated a week later.[6]
In 1984 Estonian writer Herman Sergo published the novel Näkimadalad, whose title is based on the name of the shoal. In his three-volume work Sergo portrays the tragic fate of the Estonian Swedes of Reigi village, located to the south of the shoal on Hiiumaa Island, which were deported in the 18th century to Southern Ukraine following a Russian Imperial decree.[7]