HMS Escapade

HMS Escapade was an E-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion in 1934, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–1936 during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 she spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Escapade was assigned to convoy escort and anti-submarine patrol duties in the Western Approaches when World War II began in September 1939, but transferred back to the Home Fleet at the end of the year.

After participating in the Norwegian Campaign in early 1940, she participated in anti-invasion duty and escorted capital ships to Gibraltar and in Operation Menace. The destroyer returned to the British Isles for continued escort duty, punctuated by Operation Rubble and the hunt for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in early 1941. Following a midyear refit she escorted Arctic convoys and a convoy to Malta, then went into another refit in mid-1942 before returning to the Atlantic from late 1942 to early 1943. After a refit, she returned to duty in the Atlantic later that year, but was sidelined for more than a year when a projectile from her Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon exploded, causing significant damage. Following her return to duty at the end of 1944, she escorted convoys in the last months of the war, then was used for training before being sold for scrap in 1947.