HMS Somme (1918)

Somme, the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,^[5] was ordered on 9 April 1917 as part of the Eleventh War Programme from Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company. The ship was laid down at the company's Govan shipyard in November 1917, launched on 10 August 1918 and commissioned on 4 November,^[6] joining the 14th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet.^[7] The Royal Navy was reorganised after the end of the First World War,^[8] with Somme joining the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla in March 1919.^[9] By January 1920, Somme had been transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, being allocated to a reserve division of the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla.^[10]

Somme, along with sister ships Serapis and Steadfast was ordered to join the British forces in the Black Sea on 16 January 1920 and had arrived at Constantinople by the end of the month.^[11] She was recommissioned on 15 December 1920.^[12] The ship re-commissioned at Portsmouth with 2/5ths crew on 4 December 1923 for service with the Eighth Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.^[13] Somme served on the China Station during 1927–1929 and conducted anti-piracy patrols.^[14] The ship was sold for breaking in August 1932.^[6]

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (3rd Rev ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Halpern, Paul, ed. (2011). The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919–1929. Publications of the Naval Record Society. Vol. 158. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4094-2756-8.
• Manning, T.D. (1961). The British Destroyer. London: Putnam and Co.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.