Later in the war, the focus was turned to escorting merchant ships and the destroyer helped secure convoys that crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

[3] Three funnels were fitted and 296 long tons (301 t) of oil was carried, giving a design range of 3,450 nautical miles (6,390 km; 3,970 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[5] Laid down by William Doxford & Sons of Sunderland in the River Wear, Orestes was launched on 21 March 1916 and completed during October that year.

[3] The destroyer was the sixth Royal Navy ship to be named after Orestes, the son of Clytemnestra, husband of Hermione, and king of Argos in Greek mythology.

On 1 February 1917, Orestes started to patrol off the coast of Cornwall in response to a sighting of the submarine SM U-55, which was deemed a threat to shipping.

[14] Increasingly, patrols had not provided the security needed to shipping and the Admiralty redeployed the destroyers of the Grand Fleet to focus on the more effective convoy model.

[19] The harsh conditions of wartime operations, particularly the combination of high speed and the poor weather that is typical of the North Sea, exacerbated by the fact that the hull was not galvanised, meant that the destroyer soon worn out from such service.

[20] After the armistice, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of service and Orestes was declared superfluous to operational requirements.