HMS Peterel (1927)

HMS Peterel (1927)
Career (United Kingdom)
Name:	HMS Peterel
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders
In service:	19 July 1927
Fate:	Sunk 1941-12-08, Shanghai
General characteristics
Type:	River gunboat
Displacement:	310 tons
Length:	177 ft (53.9 m)
Beam:	29 ft (8.8 m)
Draught:	3.2 ft (1.0 m)
Propulsion:	Yarrow boilers, steam turbine 2,250 hp
Speed:	16 knots
Complement:	55
Armament:	2×3" AA guns, 8×machine guns

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Peterel.

HMS Peterel was a river gunboat built by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun for service on the China station, on the Yang Tse, which entered service on 18 July 1927. Her name was a mistake - she should have been named Petrel as per the bird, but this was not noticed until after she had been launched. No attempt was made to correct it. She was rescued by the French gunboat Doudart de Lagrée in 1930.

Peterel was the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk by the Japanese navy in World War II, being shelled by the old Japanese armored cruiser Izumo on 8 December 1941 at Shanghai after refusing to surrender. The commanding officer of HMS Peterel on 8 December 1941 was Temporary Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn (RNR). He survived the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross "For great courage, determination and tenacity in fighting his ship, HMS Peterel, when attacked by overwhelming Japanese forces at Shanghai". At the time she was acting as a communications station manned only by a skeleton crew. The story of her sinking and the subsequent internment of her crew is the subject of a book The Lonely Battle by Desmond Wettern published by W H Allen in 1960.

References

• 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. OCLC 67375475. 
• "H.M.S. Falcon - Royal Navy Gunboats in China and the Far East". http://www.hmsfalcon.com/. Retrieved 2008-01-28.