HMS Peregrine (1916)

Peregrine was laid down by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, alongside sister ship Penn on 9 June 1915, with the yard number 448, launched on 29 May the following year and completed on 10 June.^[3] The ship was named after the Peregrine falcon, a title that dates from 1650.^[10] The vessel was deployed as part of the Grand Fleet, joining the newly formed Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla.^[11] On 4 July, the new flotilla was sent from Scapa Flow to the Humber.^[12] On 22 November, the flotilla took part in exercises north of the Shetland Islands under the dreadnought Iron Duke that also involved the majority of the First and Third Battle Squadrons.^[13]

Peregrine spent most of the First World War in anti-submarine escorting and patrols. For example, on 15 June 1917, the vessel, along with the rest of the flotilla, was involved in a large sweep of the area west of the Shetland Islands.^[14] The destroyer did not succeed in spotting or sinking any submarines.^[15] On 26 July, the destroyer was escorting the protected cruiser Ariadne from Immingham to Plymouth, to lay a deep minefield. Off the coast of Folkestone, the German U-boat UC-65, captained by Korvettenkapitän Otto Steinbrinck, sighted the vessels and launched two torpedoes.^[16] The torpedoes hit, sinking Ariadne, while Peregrine unsuccessfully searched for the submarine.^[17]

On 15 October, the flotilla formed part of a large-scale operation, involving 30 cruisers and 54 destroyers deployed in eight groups across the North Sea in an attempt to stop a suspected sortie by German naval forces.^[18] Despite these measures, the German light cruisers Bremse and Brummer managed to attack the regular convoy between Norway and Britain two days later, sinking two destroyers, Mary Rose and Strongbow, and nine merchant ships before returning safely to Germany.^[19] On 24 April the following year, the flotilla took part in the Royal Navy's response to one of the final sorties of the German High Seas Fleet during the First World War, although the two fleets did not actually meet and the destroyer saw no action.^[20]

After the armistice, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of mobilisation and Peregrine was declared superfluous to operational requirements. On 29 November 1919, the destroyer was reduced and placed in reserve.^[21] However, this did not last long and, on 5 November 1921, Peregrine was sold to be broken up to Cashmore or Newport, Wales.^[22]