HMS Searcher (1918)

History
United Kingdom
NameSearcher
OrderedJune 1917
BuilderJohn Brown & Company, Clydebank
Yard number479
Laid down30 March 1918
Launched11 September 1918
Completed25 November 1918
Out of service25 March 1938
FateSold to be broken up
General characteristics
Class & typeS-class destroyer
Displacement
Length265 ft (80.8 m) p.p.
Beam26 ft 9 in (8.15 m)
Draught9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) mean
Propulsion
Speed36 knots (41.4 mph; 66.7 km/h)
Range2,750 nmi (5,090 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement90
Armament

HMS Searcher was an S-class destroyer that served with the Royal Navy during the Russian Civil War. The S class was a development of the previous R class, with minor differences, constructed at the end of the First World War. Searcher was launched in September 1918 and joined the Grand Fleet days after the end of the War. The destroyer then joined the British campaign in the Baltic, sailing as part of a detachment of ten destroyers under the command of Admiral Walter Cowan in March 1919. Searcher sailed to Tallinn in support of the Estonian War of Independence the following month. On returning to the UK, the ship was placed in reserve. In 1931, the destroyer resumed active service and joined the defence flotilla at Gibraltar, and, subsequently, the Mediterranean Fleet, accompanying ships like the aircraft carrier Glorious and the dreadnought Queen Elizabeth on cruises around the Mediterranean Sea. The vessel also took part in the naval review to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of George V in 1935. Searcher was sold to be broken up in 1938.