HMS Watchman

HMS Watchman at anchor in Plymouth Sound during World War II.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Watchman
Namesake:
Ordered:	9 December 1916
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Laid down:	17 January 1917
Launched:	2 December 1917
Completed:	26 January 1918
Commissioned:	26 January 1918
Decommissioned:	1920s/1930s
Recommissioned:	1939
Decommissioned:	May 1945
Identification:	Pennant number: G23 (January 1918) G09 (April 1918) D26 (interwar) I26 (May 1940)
Motto:	Securitas ("Safety")
Honours and awards:	Battle honours for: Atlantic 1940-1941 Normandy 1944 Arctic 1944 English Channel 1944-1945
Fate:	Sold 23 July 1945 for scrapping
Badge:	A gold lanthom (i.e, ship's lantern) with red panes on a black field
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiralty W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,100 tons
Length:	300 ft (91 m) o/a, 312 ft (95 m)p/p
Beam:	26.75 ft (8.15 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m) standard, 11.25 ft (3.43 m) in deep
Propulsion:	3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers Brown-Curtis steam turbines 2 shafts 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Speed:	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range:	320-370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), 900 nmi (1,700 km) at 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Complement:	110
Armament:	4 × QF 4 in Mk.V (102mm L/45), mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) or; 1 × QF 3 inch 20 cwt (76 mm), mount HA Mk.II 6 (2x3) tubes for 21 in torpedoes

HMS Watchman was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Russian Civil War, and in World War II.

Watchman was ordered on 9 December 1916 and was laid down by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, Scotland, on 17 January 1917. Launched on 2 December 1917, she was completed on 26 January 1918 and commissioned the same day. She was assigned the pennant number G23 in January 1918; it was changed to G09 in April 1918, and to D26 during the interwar period.

Upon completion, Watchman was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I.

Watchman and the destroyer Velox were dispatched from Scapa Flow in late March 1919 to take part in the Freedom of the City celebration at Liverpool in honor of the Grand Fleet's commander, Admiral Sir David Beatty, proceeding then for a five-day visit in early April 1919 to Preston, Lancashire, to acknowledge the work of the Vegetable Products Committee in providing fresh fruit and vegetables to the Royal Navy during World War I; 50,000 people visited the ships while they were at Preston. The two destroyers then returned to Scapa Flow. Watchman later took part in the British campaign against Bolshevik forces in the Baltic Sea during 1919, seeing action against Russian warships.