HMS Scythe (1918)

HMS Scythe (1918)
Career
Name:	HMS Scythe
Ordered:	June 1917
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	14 January 1918
Launched:	25 April 1918
Completed:	July 1918
Fate:	Sold for breaking up 28 November 1931
General characteristics
Class & type:	S-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,075 long ton
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 (later removed)
Notes:	Pennant number: G32; H22 (from 1925)

HMS Scythe was an S-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank and was launched on 10 April 1918. She served in the 12th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet 1918-19, moving to the new 7th Destroyer Flotilla at Rosyth in 1919 before going into reserve at Devonport on 12 November 1919. Subsequently, she was re-commissioned on 4 April 1923 and served as an independent command in Irish waters after the establishment of the Irish Free State. She was involved in a shooting incident at Queenstown on 21 March 1924, when she was attacked by machine gun fire. She continued to serve in Irish waters until she was laid up c.1930, before being sold on 28 November 1931 for breaking by Cashmore (Newport), arriving December 1931.

Commanding Officers

Lt. Cdr. Evelyn H. B. L. Scrivener (22 June 1918)

(reduced to reserve, Devonport, 12 November 1919)

Cdr. Herbert W. Wyld DSO (9 February 1920)

Lt. Geoffrey S. Grenfell (acting, temporary) (June 1920)

(recommissioned 4 April 1923)

Lt. Cdr. A. Knubley (17 March 1924)

Lt. Cdr. L. T. C. Hill (1 September 1925)

(reduced to 3/5-th complement, 28 December 1925)

Lt. Cdr. J. G. Crossley (31 December 1927)

Lt. Cdr. F. E. Wilmot-Sitwell (21 August 1928)

Lt. Cdr. F. C. Husband-Clutton (20 August 1929)

Commissioned Engineer T. G. Rayleigh (3 March 1931)

(recommissioned in the Reserve Fleet as tender to Comus, Devonport, 26 May 1931)

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.