HMS Shikari (D85) was an Admiralty S-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland and launched on 14 July 1919. She was one of the destroyers that took part in the Invergordon Mutiny. In 1933, she was briefly commanded by Frederic John Walker, who was to rise to fame as the foremost Allied submarine hunter of World War II.
On 4 June 1940, Shikari was the last ship to leave Dunkirk.
Construction and design
Shikari was ordered from Doxford Shipyard in April 1917 as part of the first batch of 24 S-class destroyers. The S class were intended as a fast destroyer for service that would be cheaper than the large V-class destroyers that preceded them and so able to be ordered in large numbers. The ships were long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of . They displaced standard and full load. Three Yarrow boilers fed Brown-Curtiss single-reduction steam turbines which drove two propeller shafts, and generated at 360 rpm, giving the required 36 knot speed. of oil could be carried, giving a range of at . The design gun armament of the S class was three guns and a single 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. Torpedo armament was four torpedo tubes in two twin rotating mounts and two tubes.
Shikari was laid down on 15 January 1918, but construction was slowed by the end of the First World War in November 1918, and she was not launched until 14 July 1919. After launching, Shikari was towed to Chatham Dockyard for fitting out. It was decided to use Shikari as a control ship for the old battleship and target ship . As a control ship, Shikari was unarmed, with a large deckhouse for the radio-control equipment fitted between the ship's funnels. She was finally commissioned in February 1924.
Early in the Second World War, Shikari, along with several other S-class destroyers based in the UK, was modified as a dedicated anti-submarine escort. After conversion, armament consisted of a single 4-inch gun forward, with a 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun amidships. Close-in anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quadruple Vickers .50 machine gun mounts. Both sets of torpedo-tubes were removed, allowing a heavy depth charge armament, with 112 depth charges carried, with sufficient depth charge throwers and racks to allow 14-charge patterns of charges to be used. Type 286 radar and Type 133 Sonar was fitted. Later in the war, the depth charge armament was reduced, with a 10-charge pattern substituted (as this was found to be as effective as the earlier 14-charge pattern). The .50 machine guns were eventually replaced by four single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, and the 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun removed to allow Type 271 radar to be fitted on a lattice mast aft.
Service
Shikari continued as a control ship for the remainder of the inter war period, first for Agamemnon and then for . Shikari was present at Invergordon in September 1931 during the Invergordon Mutiny, although there was little trouble on board. Amongst Shikaris commanding officers during the inter-war period was Commander Frederic John Walker, who became a notable anti-submarine warfare commander during the Second World War. On 15 January 1938, Shikari was escorting Centurion from Devonport to Gibraltar across the Bay of Biscay when the heavy weather caused a fault in her port engine, forcing the destroyer to put into Lisbon. On 2 February 1939, Shikari was involved in a collision with the destroyer off Malta, with Griffins hull being damaged near the stern.