Most notably in February 1945 she was despatched with the destroyers Myngs and Scorpion[5] to reinforce a convoy from the Kola Inlet in Russia, which had suffered attacks from enemy aircraft and U-boats, and had subsequently been scattered by a violent storm.

[5] From 1955 to 1957, Cavalier was modernised at Thornycroft's Woolston, Southampton shipyard, removing some of her torpedo tubes and a 4.5-inch gun in favour of two Squid anti-submarine mortars.

[6][8] From March to April 1958, Cavalier took part in the Operation Grapple, the British nuclear weapon tests at Malden Island and Kiritimati.

After disembarking the troops she remained in Brunei as a communications centre for several days until other Royal Navy ships arrived to relieve her.

[10][11] On 21 May 1964, Cavalier was being towed by the tug RFA Reward to Gibraltar for refit when she was in collision with the Liberian tanker Burgan, about 35 nmi (40 mi; 65 km) south-west of Brighton.

As a unique survivor, after a five-year campaign led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the ship was purchased by the Cavalier Trust for £65,000 and handed over on Trafalgar Day 1977 in Portsmouth.

In 1987, the ship was brought to the River Tyne to form the main attraction of a national shipbuilding exhibition centre planned by South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council in the former shipyard of Hawthorn Leslie and Company, builders of many similar destroyers.

The plans for the museum came to nothing, and the borough council, faced with annual maintenance costs of £30,000 and a hardening of public opinion against unnecessary expenditure, resolved to sell the ship and wind up the venture in 1996.

The ship sat in a dry dock (owing to a previous list) in a rusting condition, awaiting a buyer or scrapping in situ.

[17][18] The tour, which includes Cavalier's engine and gear room, was enhanced with interactive audio hotspots to enable visitors with accessibility issues to explore the ship.