HMS Sardonyx (1919)

Sardonyx in 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name	Sardonyx
Namesake	Sardonyx
Ordered	June 1917
Builder	Stephen, Linthouse
Laid down	25 March 1918
Launched	27 May 1919
Completed	12 July 1919
Out of service	23 June 1945
Fate	Sold to be broken up
General characteristics
Class and type	S-class destroyer
Displacement	1,075 long tons (1,092 t) normal 1,221 long tons (1,241 t) deep load
Length	265 ft (80.8 m) p.p.
Beam	26 ft 8 in (8.13 m)
Draught	9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) mean
Installed power	3 Yarrow boilers, 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 geared Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts
Speed	36 knots (41.4 mph; 66.7 km/h)
Range	2,750 nmi (5,090 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement	90
Armament	3 × single QF 4 in (102 mm) guns 1 × single 2-pdr 40 mm (1.6 in) AA gun 2 × twin 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 4 × depth charge chutes

HMS Sardonyx was an Admiralty S-class destroyer that served with the Royal Navy in the Second World War. The S class were a development of the R class created during the First World War as a cheaper alternative to the V and W class. The ships shared a main armament of three 4 in (102 mm) guns and four 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Launched in 1919 soon after the armistice, the ship was initially commissioned into the Reserve Fleet. Later that year, the destroyer was sent to Latvia, arriving just after the cessation of that country's war of independence, returning to reserve soon after. The vessel was back in service searching for the missing submarines M1 in 1925 and M2 in 1932 and, in 1935, helped to rescue the steamer Brompton Manor in stormy weather near Selsey Bill.

Sardonyx took part in radar trials in 1939, and was updated shortly after the start of the Second World War with greater anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. Depth charge throwers replaced the torpedo tubes and all the main armament but the forecastle gun was removed. A Type 286M radar was also fitted, although successive antennas proved vulnerable to storms and were lost. Throughout 1940, Sardonyx provided escort to convoys in the western approaches. The vessel was also called upon to support single ships, like the damaged liner RMS Empress of Britain, although in this case the destroyer's presence was insufficient to deter the German submarine U-32 from sinking the liner.

In 1941, the ship joined the Fifth Escort Group, which destroyed the German submarines U-99 and U-100, although Sardonyx did not claim any hits. Increasingly, the destroyer was able to escort convoys without losing a merchant ship to submarine attack, a distinction that continued into the following year. At the same time, increasing availability of more modern escorts meant that there was less need for older vessels and Sardonyx dropped from covering twenty convoys in 1942 to nine in 1943. At the same time, the harsh conditions of service meant that the destroyer was increasingly spending time in repair rather than operations. After being involved in escorting the landing parties for the Normandy landings in 1944, the vessel was briefly allocated to training before being retired and sold to be broken up in 1945.