HMS Seawolf (1918)

One of nine of the class to be built by the shipyard,Seawolf was laid down on 30 April 1918 by John Brown & Company in Clydebank with the yard number 480, launched on 2 November shortly before the Armistice that ended the First World War and completed on 28 January the following year.^[5][10] The vessel was the first that served in the Royal Navy to be named Seawolf.^[11][12] Completed on 28 January the following year, Seawolf was commissioned and joined the torpedo school at Devonport.^[13][14] The vessel did not receive a full crew until 20 October.^[15]

The destroyer joined the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.^[16] Although the war had finished, the escalating civil war in Russia continued. The United Kingdom decided to send units of the Royal Navy into the Baltic Sea to monitor the situation. Soon into the campaign, it became clear that the Russians were planning to occupy the Baltic state of Latvia and integrate it into the new Soviet Union.^[17] The fleet was therefore tasked with not simply helping to help organise the evacuation of German forces from the country but also support their War of independence. This was achieved on 14 November when Latvia secured its independence.^[18] On 28 December, the destroyer, along with sister ships Sardonyx and Tenedos, left the capital of Tallinn and sailed home, arriving in Rosyth on 4 January the following year.^[19][20]

On 13 February 1920, the ship started a tour of Germany, initially visiting Flensburg, leaving the following day for Wilhelmshaven and arriving in Hamburg four days later, returning to the UK on 20 February.^[21] On 16 June, the destroyer visited Copenhagen.^[22] The vessel was subsequently deployed in Ireland. On 26 November, the warship carried the bodies of some of the bodies of those killed in Bloody Sunday to their funerals.^[23] On 1 August 1922, the future Admiral of the Fleet, John Tovey took command of the destroyer.^[24] On 17 September 1924, while based at Queenstown, Seawolf rescued the passengers and crew of the Leyland Line steamship Asian that went down in a storm.^[25] On 22 April 1930, the London Naval Treaty was signed, which limited total destroyer tonnage in the Royal Navy. The force was looking to introduce more modern destroyers and so needed to retire some of the older vessels.^[26] Seawolf was retired and, on 23 February 1931, sold to John Cashmore Ltd to be broken up at Newport, Wales.^[27]