HMS ''Shikari'' (D85) was an Admiralty S-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. She was built by

William Doxford & Sons William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a British shipbuilding and marine engineering company. History William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 1870 it was based in Pallion, Sunderland, on the River Wea ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and launched on 14 July 1919. She was one of the destroyers that took part in the

Invergordon Mutiny The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet that took place on 15–16 September 1931. For two days, ships of the Royal Navy at Invergordon were in open mutiny, in one of the few mili ...

. In 1933, she was briefly commanded by

Frederic John Walker Captain Frederic John Walker, (3 June 1896 – 9 July 1944) (his first name is given as Frederick in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and some London Gazette entries) was a Royal Navy officer noted for his exploits during the Second ...

, who was to rise to fame as the foremost Allied submarine hunter of World War II. On 4 June 1940, ''Shikari'' was the last ship to leave

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Friedman 2009, p. 311. The S class were intended as a fast destroyer for service that would be cheaper than the large V-class destroyers that preceded them and so able to be ordered in large numbers.Friedman 2009, pp. 168–169. The ships were long

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the stern ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . They displaced standard and full load. Three

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s fed Brown-Curtiss single-reduction

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s which drove two propeller shafts, and generated at 360 rpm, giving the required 36 knot speed. of oil could be carried, giving a range of at .Whitley 2000, p. 83.Lenton 1970, p. 15. The design gun armament of the S class was three guns and a single 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. Torpedo armament was four

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s in two twin rotating mounts and two tubes. ''Shikari'' was laid down on 15 January 1918, but construction was slowed by the end of the First World War in November 1918, and she was not launched until 14 July 1919. After launching, ''Shikari'' was towed to Chatham Dockyard for fitting out. It was decided to use ''Shikari'' as a control ship for the old battleship and

target ship A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. Targets may be used with the intention of testing effectiveness of specific types of ammuniti ...

. As a control ship, ''Shikari'' was unarmed, with a large deckhouse for the radio-control equipment fitted between the ship's funnels.Parkes 1931, p. 65. She was finally commissioned in February 1924. Early in the Second World War, ''Shikari'', along with several other S-class destroyers based in the UK, was modified as a dedicated anti-submarine escort. After conversion, armament consisted of a single 4-inch gun forward, with a

12-pounder 12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds. Guns of this type include: *12-pounder long gun, the naval muzzle-loader of the Age of Sail *Canon de 12 de Vallière, French cannon of 1732 *Cano ...

anti-aircraft gun amidships. Close-in anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quadruple

Vickers .50 machine gun The Vickers .50 machine gun, also known as the 'Vickers .50' was similar to the Vickers machine gun but enlarged to use a larger-calibre round. It saw some use in tanks and other fighting vehicles but was more commonly used as a close-in anti- ...

mounts. Both sets of torpedo-tubes were removed, allowing a heavy

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

armament, with 112 depth charges carried, with sufficient depth charge throwers and racks to allow 14-charge patterns of charges to be used. Type 286 radar and Type 133 Sonar was fitted.Whitley 2000, pp. 83–84.Brown 2007, p. 17. Later in the war, the depth charge armament was reduced, with a 10-charge pattern substituted (as this was found to be as effective as the earlier 14-charge pattern).Friedman 2009, p. 237. The .50 machine guns were eventually replaced by four single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, and the 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun removed to allow Type 271 radar to be fitted on a lattice mast aft.Whitley 2000, p. 84.Friedman 2009, pp. 242–243.

Service

''Shikari'' continued as a control ship for the remainder of the inter war period, first for ''Agamemnon'' and then for . ''Shikari'' was present at

Invergordon Invergordon (; gd, Inbhir Ghòrdain or ) is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen. History The town built up around the harbour which was establish ...

in September 1931 during the

, although there was little trouble on board. Amongst ''Shikari''s commanding officers during the inter-war period was

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

, who became a notable anti-submarine warfare commander during the Second World War. On 2 February 1939, ''Shikari'' was involved in a collision with the destroyer off

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, with ''Griffin''s hull being damaged near the stern.English 1993, p. 100. On the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, ''Shikari'' was re-armed and from January 1940 carried out convoy escort operations. At the end of May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was trapped by German forces at Dunkirk, and it was decided to launch

Operation Dynamo Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk, and ''Shikari'' was one of the destroyers that took part in the operation,Rohwer and Hümmelchen 1992, p. 21. carrying out her first evacuation trip on 28 May, making a second trip on 29 May. On 29 May, Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord, ordered the withdrawal of modern destroyers from the Dunkirk operations owing to the high losses, putting greater pressure on old destroyers such as ''Shikari''.Barnett 2000, p. 150. On 1 June, the steamer was badly damaged by near misses from German artillery and bombing. ''Shikari'', along with the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

and the paddle minesweeper ''Queen of Thanet'', took off ''Prague''s load of 3,000 French troops before ''Prague'' beached herself on the Sandwich Flats. ''Shikari'' herself was damaged by German bombing on 1 June.Barnett 2000, p. 156. ''Shikari'' continued to make evacuation runs and at 03:40 on the night of 3/4 June 1940 was the last ship to leave Dunkirk.Barnett 2000, pp. 160–161. In total, ''Shikari'' made seven trips to Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo, embarking 3349 troops. After Dunkirk, ''Shikari'' returned to escort work, and on 4 July, when the cargo ship was damaged by German

dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...

s and then collided with , ''Shikari'' took off the crew of ''Dallas City'' before the cargo ship sank, surviving unscathed when attacked by German bombers. On 24 July, the French troopship ,

repatriating Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

French sailors after the French armistice with Germany, was torpedoed by the German Schnellboot ''S.27'', and ''Shikari'', together with the destroyers , and rescued the survivors. On 9 September 1940,

Convoy HX 72 HX 72 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX convoys, HX series which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. The convoy comprised 43 ships of which 11 were sunk and another damaged by German U-boats who suffered no losses. Backg ...

left

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, bound for the UK. The convoy was escorted most of the way across the Atlantic by the

armed merchant cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...

, with an escort of destroyers and

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

s (including ''Shikari'') to protect the convoy for the dangerous final stages through the Western Approaches. ''Jervis Bay'' left the convoy on 20 September, before the escort group had rendezvoused with the convoy. The German submarine spotted the unescorted convoy shortly after ''Jervis Bay'' had left, and shadowed the convoy allowing a "wolfpack" of

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s to be assembled against the convoy. U-boats sank four merchant ships before the escort group, consisting of the sloop , the corvettes , and and ''Shikari'' arrived. ''Shikari'' was tasked with rescuing the crews from the torpedoed merchant ships, while the remaining four escorts stayed with the convoy. ''Shikari'' picked up survivors from , and . Attacks on the convoy continued, with seven ships being sunk by on the night of 21/22 September.Rohwer and Hümmelchen 1992, p. 34. ''Shikari'' continued in the convoy escort role in the Western Approaches area, serving with the 2nd Escort Group based at Londonderry in Northern Ireland, and along with

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

attacked a suspected submarine on 22 December 1940 when escorting Convoy OB 262. On 24 October 1941, ''Shikari'' sustained serious damage in high seas south of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, losing a funnel, and was under repair at

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

until December that year, joining the 21st Escort Group, based at Iceland. ''Shikari'' continued in the convoy escort role into 1944, entering reserve and being used for training from September 1944. ''Shikari'' was sold for scrap in September 1945, arriving at Cashmore's shipbreaking yard on 4 November 1945.Dittmar and Colledge 1972, p. 74.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shikari S-class destroyers (1917) of the Royal Navy 1919 ships World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Wear