As the first of the Aubrietia class, she was designed as single-screw fleet sweeping vessel, with a triple hull at the bows.

[1] The propulsion system consisted of a four-cylinder triple expansion engine, connected to a single propeller shaft.

[3] Between October - December 1916, Q.13 was assigned to anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel and South Western Approaches.

[4] On 22 December 1918, Q.13, operating out of Devonport, interrupted the German submarine UC-18 which was in the process of boarding and scuttling the Danish steamer Hroptatyr west of the Channel Islands.

UC-18 dived away to avoid the sloop, and Q.13 dropped a depth charge in response, before picking up the survivors from Hroptatyr and the crew of the Danish steamer Dansborg, sunk by UC-18 earlier that day.

[5] On 12 January 1917, Q.13, operating out of Milford Haven under the name Kai and flying the Danish flag, encountered the German submarine UB-23 in the English Channel, off Les Casquets.

Q.13's commander claimed that the submarine's conning tower had been blown off, but in fact the damage was not fatal, and UB-23 managed to safely return to base.

[2][10] Q.13 reverted her name to HMS Aubrietia on 1 May 1917[3] and was listed as part of the First Sloop Flotilla operating in the Irish Sea,[11] and based at Queenstown.

[20] In May 1918 Aubrietia formed part of the Northern Patrol,[21] but by the end of the war had transferred to the 3rd Sloop Flotilla based out of Dundee and operating in the North Sea.