HMS Somme (1918)

HMS Somme was an Admiralty S-class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched in September 1918 at the close of World War I. She was built in Scotland by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan. Commissioned for Fleet service in 1918, she was the first Royal Navy ship to carry this name.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Somme.

HMS Somme at anchor near Hong Kong, August, 1928
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Somme
Ordered: April 1917[1]
Builder: Fairfield at Govan, Glasgow
Launched: 10 September 1918
Completed: 4 November 1918
Commissioned: 1918
Identification: Pennant number: G.52[2]
Fate: Disposal List, breakers yard 1932
General characteristics
Class and type: S-class destroyer
Displacement: 1,075 tons
Length: 276 ft (84 m) o/a
Beam: 26 ft 9 in (8.15 m)
Draught: 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m)
Propulsion: Brown-Curtis, steam turbines, 2 shafts, 27,000 shp
Speed: 36 knots
Range: 250-300 tons of oil
Complement: 90
Armament:
  • 3 × QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mark IV guns, mount P Mk. IX
  • 1 × QF 2 pdr Mark II "pom-pom"
  • 4 × Lewis Guns
  • 2 × twin tubes for 21 in torpedoes
  • 2 × fixed 14 in tubes for torpedoes

Service

Somme was recommissioned on 15 December 1920.[3] She re-commissioned at Portsmouth with 2.5ths crew on 4 December 1923 for service with the Eighth Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.[4] Somme served in the China Station from 1927–29 and conducted anti-piracy patrols.[5]

After the war new destroyer designs were introduced, and many S-class destroyers were scrapped. Somme was sold for breaking on 25 August 1932.

References
  1. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 84.
  2. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 74.
  3. The Navy List. (January, 1921). p. 865
  4. The Navy List. (April, 1925). p. 271.
  5. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/archivespec/documents/archivesdocs/china.pdf

Bibliography
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
  • Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  • March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
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