HMS Opportune (1915)

Laid down by William Doxford & Sons at their shipyard in Sunderland, Opportune was launched on 20 November 1915 and completed during June the following year^[3] The destroyer was the first Royal Navy ship to be given the name.^[6] The vessel was deployed as part of the Grand Fleet, joining the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla at Scapa Flow.^[7][8]

The destroyer was active in anti-submarine warfare but with variable results. On 15 June 1917, Opportune, along with the rest of the flotilla, was involved in a large sweep of the area west of the Shetland Islands.^[9] No submarines were sunk.^[10] Increasingly, patrols had not provided the security needed to shipping and the Admiralty redeployed the destroyers of the Grand Fleet to focus on the more effective convoy model.^[11] Opportune was one of the vessels detached from the flotilla to act as a convoy escort.^[12] The flotilla subsequently took part in the Royal Navy's engagement with one of the final sorties of the German High Seas Fleet during the First World War, on 24 April 1918, although the two fleets did not actually meet and the destroyers returned unharmed.^[13]

After the armistice, the Grand Fleet was disbanded. The Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of mobilisation and both the number of ships and the amount of staff needed to be reduced to save money.^[14] Opportune was placed in reserve at Portsmouth and, on 17 October 1919, was placed in care and maintenance.^[15][16] For a brief period, the destroyer was reactivated and used as a remote controlled target to test the resilience of warships against aerial attacks.^[17] However, soon after, in 1923, the Navy decided to scrap many of the older destroyers in preparation for the introduction of newer and larger vessels.^[18] On 7 December, Opportune was sold to King of Garston to be broken up.^[19]