HMS Sardonyx was a British Admiralty destroyer that served with the Royal Navy from soon after the First World War to the end of the Second World War. The S class was a development of the First World War-era , designed as a cheaper alternative to the es that had followed them. The ships shared their predecessor's main armament of three guns and four torpedo tubes. Launched in 1919 soon after the armistice, Sardonyx was initially commissioned into the Reserve Fleet. Later that year, the destroyer was sent to Latvia, arriving just after the cessation of that country's war of independence. Returning to reserve soon after, the vessel was placed back in service to help in the successive searches for the missing submarines in 1925 and in 1932 and, in 1935, assisted in the rescue of the steamer Brompton Manor in stormy weather near Selsey Bill on the English southern coast.
Sardonyx took part in radar trials in 1939, and was updated shortly after the start of the Second World War with greater anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. The torpedo tubes were replaced by depth charge throwers and all the main armament but the forecastle gun was removed. A Type 286M radar was also fitted, although successive antennas proved vulnerable to storms and were lost. Throughout 1940, Sardonyx provided escort to convoys in the Western Approaches. The vessel was also called upon to support single ships, like the damaged liner , although in that case the liner was sunk by the German submarine .
In 1941, the ship joined the Fifth Escort Group, which destroyed the German submarines and , although Sardonyx did not claim any hits. Increasingly, the destroyer was able to escort convoys without losing a merchant ship to submarine attack, a distinction that continued into the following year. Simultaneously, increasing availability of more modern escorts meant that there was less need for older vessels while the harsh conditions of service meant that the destroyer was increasingly spending time in repair rather than operations. Sardonyx dropped from covering twenty convoys in 1942 to nine in 1943. After being involved in escorting the landing parties for the Normandy landings in 1944, the vessel was briefly allocated to training before being retired and sold to be broken up in 1945.
Design and development
Sardonyx was one of thirty-six ordered by the British Admiralty during the First World War in June 1917 as part of the Twelfth War Construction Programme. They were built to a design specified by the Admiralty and so were known as "Admiralty destroyers". This design was a development of the that were also built to an Admiralty specification. The S-class destroyers were to be introduced at the same time as, and as a cheaper and faster alternative to, the es. They were to serve as general-purpose ships in the Harwich Force while the more powerful V and W classes would be deployed to support the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. Differences from the R class were minor, such as having the searchlight moved aft and the ability to mount an additional pair of torpedo tubes. The destroyers were known as the Modified Trenchard or S class, as the majority were named starting with the letter S.
Sardonyx had an overall length of and a length of between perpendiculars. Beam was and mean draught . Displacement was normal and deep load. Three Yarrow boilers vented through two funnels. They fed steam to two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines rated at and driving two shafts, giving a design speed of at normal loading and at deep load. A full load of of fuel oil was carried, which gave a design range of at . The ship had a complement of 90 officers and ratings.
Armament as constructed consisted of three single QF Mk IV guns on the ship's centreline. One was mounted raised on the forecastle, one on a platform between the funnels and one aft. The ship also mounted a single 2-pounder "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. Four torpedo tubes were carried in two twin rotating mounts aft. Four depth charge chutes were also fitted aft. Typically ten depth charges were carried. The ship was designed to mount two additional torpedo tubes on either side of the superstructure but this required the forecastle plating to be cut away, making the vessel's crew more vulnerable to spray, so they were removed before the vessel entered service. The weight saved enabled the heavier Mark V 21-inch torpedo to be carried. Fire control included a training-only director that helped aim the guns as they transversed, a single Dumaresq analogue computer and a Vickers range clock.
Construction and career Laid down on 25 March 1918 in the final year of the First World War by Alexander Stephen and Sons at their dockyard in Linthouse, Glasgow, Sardonyx was launched on 27 May the following year and completed on 12 July. The vessel was the first Royal Navy vessel to bear the name of the semi-precious stone. With the end of the war, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of strength and both the number of ships and personnel needed to be reduced to save money. Even after withdrawing all its pre-war destroyers, the Royal Navy still found there were more ships available than it needed for active service. Sardonyx was commissioned into the Reserve Fleet.
Interwar service Although the war on the Western Front had finished with the signing of the Armistice, the escalating civil war in Russia continued and there was unrest in the Baltic Sea. This reached a peak when the people of Latvia declared independence, which was achieved on 14 November 1919 after a war of independence. Sardonyx was one of the Royal Navy vessels sent to monitor the situation during the following month. The ship returned to the United Kingdom and was reduced to reserve on 3 March 1920. In November 1925, Sardonyx was briefly taken out of reserve to take part in search operations to find the missing submarine . M1 had been sunk with all hands in a collision on 12 November, but the submarine's wreck was not found until 1967.
On 6 August 1931, Sardonyx was recommissioned at the Royal Navy base in Portsmouth. On 27 January 1932, Sardonyx and sister ship took part in the search for the missing submarine . M2 had sunk the day before. On 17 September 1935, as severe gales struck British waters, the steamer Brompton Manor sent out a distress signal while off the Owers lightvessel, in the English Channel near Selsey Bill on the English southern coast. Sardonyx was ordered from Portsmouth to search for the steamer, which was successfully found later that day. Brompton Manors captain had been washed overboard by heavy seas, and the ships cargo shifted, giving a 30-degree list. Sardonyx stood by Brompton Manor until a tug could tow the steamer into the Port of Southampton. Sardonyx ran aground off Southsea on 31 January 1938, but was soon refloated and sustained no damage.
In 1939, Sardonyx joined a project to use radar to detect ships. In the initial trials, the destroyer was chosen as one of the targets. Trials in June with a L-band radar with a wavelength of were a qualified success, with ships identified at and low-flying aircraft at . Subsequently, Sardonyx was equipped with an experimental 50 cm radar set named the Combined Wireless Rangefinder and Lookout Set, on 14 October. This was not a success as detection of surface targets was inadequate at the expected range. After the trials, it was envisaged that the destroyer would join sister ships , , , , and at the China Station to form the Singapore and Hong Kong Local Defence Flotilla. However, by the end of the trial, the Second World War had started and the Royal Navy decided to retain the destroyer in British waters. Sardonyx joined the Local Defence Flotilla at Portsmouth.
Second World War At the start of the war, the Royal Navy had an immediate requirement for escorts to combat the German submarine threat. This required a rethink of the role of the destroyer, which hitherto had been envisaged by the navy as a member of a flotilla supporting the battleships of the fleet. Along with the ten remaining S-class warships, the destroyer was taken out of service and refitted for the anti-submarine escort role. Alongside Saladin and , Sardonyx was fitted with a heavier anti-submarine armament. The torpedo tubes were removed, the space allowing for additional depth charges, and two depth charge throwers were fitted alongside new racks aft. 30 charges were carried, although this increased as the war progressed. The midship and aft guns were removed and anti-aircraft defence improved with a high-angle QF 12-pounder gun fitted on a bandstand abaft the forward funnel and two quad-mounted Vickers .50 machine guns mounted on the superstructure for close-in defence. The destroyer re-entered service but, on 31 May 1940, collided with and sank the trawler St Apollo off the Hebrides.
For the majority of the war, Sardonyx acted as a convoy escort. When Convoy HX 79 was attacked by , which subsequently called in a wolfpack of four other boats on 19 October 1940, Sardonyx was one of those sent to protect the convoy. Although 10 Royal Navy warships rushed to the scene, 12 ships in the convoy were sunk. This was the first success for the wolfpacks. On 27 October, the destroyer was sent to escort the stricken liner , which had been attacked by a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft. Despite taking evasive manoeuvres, the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine . During the next five months, the destroyer escorted 15 convoys in the Atlantic Ocean, OB 236, HX 82, OB 239, HX 86, OB 245, HX 99, OB 256, SL/MKS 58, OB 262, HX 106, OB 269, SC 19, OB 278, SL/MKS 62, and OB 283, rarely staying more than one or two days covering the Western Approaches.
The long-term solution was to form Escort Groups with multiple warships. Sardonyx joined the Fifth Escort Group, which was formed in March 1941. On 15 March, the Group, led by Commander Donald Macintyre, joined Convoy HX 112 as an escort. The convoy had been travelling from Halifax, Nova Scotia, since 1 March. As evening fell, the convoy was attacked by a wolfpack including the submarines , and . Despite losing six merchant ships, the Group successfully destroyed U-99 and U-100, although Sardonyx did not claim any hits. In June, a Type 286M radar was fitted in Londonderry. The antenna proved too heavy for the mast and was lost in a gale, as was the replacement within two months. On 16 August, Sardonyx was part of the Eighth Escort Group that formed the eastern ocean escort for convoy HX 143. On 4 October, the Group again safely accompanied ON(S) 23 across to rendezvous with escorts from the Royal Canadian Navy. On 1 November the Group escorted the 42 ships of ON 30 until handing them to destroyers from the US Navy. The role was reciprocated on 15 November when the Group received HX 160 from a US Navy escort. No merchant ship was lost in any of these operations. In all, the destroyer escorted 26 convoys during 1941.
The following year saw a similar pattern. Between 14 and 16 February, Sardonyx formed part of the Second Escort Group that accompanied Convoy ON 66 on the first stage of its journey. Once again, no ships were lost. On 22 February, the destroyer, alongside sister ship Saladin, joined the escort for SC.69 from Halifax, bringing the convoy safely into Liverpool three days later. The destroyer subsequently escorted five UR convoys travelling between Loch Ewe and Reykjavík, six RU convoys travelling back, three WS convoys sailing south, MKS 3Y from Philippeville, SL/MKS 103 from Freetown, and TA 21, AT 22, TA 22 and HX 206 crossing between Britain and North America. During this time, the destroyer was upgraded again with four single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon replacing the Vickers machine guns and allocated, along with five remaining sister ships, to the Twenty-First Escort Group. It was hoped that keeping the warships together would help them operationally.