HMS Napier (1915)

Laid down by John Brown & Company of Clydebank at their shipyard on 6 July 1915 with the yard number 444, Napier was launched on 27 November and completed on 22 January the following year.^[5] The ship was the third to be named after Admiral Sir Charles Napier, the nineteenth century sailor, to enter naval service.^[13] The vessel was deployed as part of the Grand Fleet, joining the Twelfth Destroyer Flotilla at Scapa Flow.^[14]

Napier was undergoing refit in May 1916 and so missed the Battle of Jutland.^[15] On 5 June, the destroyer was sent out to look for survivors from the armoured cruiser Hampshire.^[16] Hampshire had been sailing to Russia without escort with the Secretary of State for War, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener,^[17] but had sunk after hitting a mine and only 13 individuals, which did not include the Secretary of State, survived.^[18] Napier found only three deserted boats, including a dinghy and a whaler.^[19] On 16 November the destroyer sailed to confront the German High Seas Fleet at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the defensive screen for the dreadnought battleships of the First Battle Squadron,^[20] but was not called on to engage the enemy forces and returned to port without firing a shot.^[21]

On 27 January 1917, the destroyer was temporally seconded to the Harwich Force to bolster defences in the south of England.^[22] The posting did not last long and by July the vessel had returned to Scapa Flow, remaining with the Twelfth Destroyer Flotilla.^[23][24] Later that year, Napier was involved in escorting oilers of the Grand Fleet.^[25] During the following year, the destroyer joined the newly formed Third Destroyer Flotilla.^[26]

After the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the war, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of strength. Both the number of ships and personnel needed to be reduced to save money.^[27] Napier was initially placed in reserve at Devonport.^[28] However, the posting did not last long. The harsh conditions of wartime service, particularly the combination of high speed and the poor weather that is typical of the North Sea, exacerbated by the fact that the hull was not galvanised, meant that much of the hull and superstructure was well worn.^[29] The destroyer was deemed unfit to remain in operation, subsequently was decommissioned and, on 8 November 1921, was sold to Slough TC to be broken up in Germany.^[30]