The vessel was back in service searching for the missing submarines M1 in 1925 and M2 in 1932 and, in 1935, helped to rescue the steamer Brompton Manor in stormy weather near Selsey Bill.
Sardonyx took part in radar trials in 1939, and was updated shortly after the start of the Second World War with greater anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities.
Increasingly, the destroyer was able to escort convoys without losing a merchant ship to submarine attack, a distinction that continued into the following year.
At the same time, increasing availability of more modern escorts meant that there was less need for older vessels and Sardonyx dropped from covering twenty convoys in 1942 to nine in 1943.
[1] They were to serve as general purpose ships in the Harwich Force while the more powerful V and W class would be deployed to support the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow.
A full load of 301 long tons (306 t) of fuel oil was carried, which gave a design range of 2,750 nautical miles (5,090 km; 3,160 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).
[1] Fire control included a training-only director, single Dumaresq analog computer and a Vickers range clock.
[10] Laid down on 25 March 1918 shortly before the end of the First World War by Alexander Stephen and Sons at their dockyard in Linthouse, Glasgow, Sardonyx was launched on 27 May the following year and completed on 12 July.
[11] With the end of the war, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of strength and both the number of ships and personnel needed to be reduced to save money.
[12] Even after withdrawing all its pre-war destroyers, the Royal Navy still found there were more ships available than it needed for active service.
[22] On 17 September 1935, as severe gales struck British waters, the steamer Brompton Manor sent out a distress signal while off the Owers lightvessel, near Selsey Bill.
Brompton Manor's captain had been washed overboard by heavy seas, and the ship's cargo shifted, giving a 30 degree list.
[28] After the trial, it was envisaged that the destroyer would join sister ships Saladin Scout, Stronghold, Sturdy, Thanet and Thracian at the China Station to form the Singapore and Hong Kong Local Defence Flotilla.
However, by the end of the trial, the Second World War had started and the Royal Navy decided to retain the destroyer in British waters.
[31] This required a rethink of the role of the destroyer, which hitherto had been envisaged by the navy as a member of a flotilla supporting the battleships of the fleet.
[38] On 27 October, the destroyer was sent to escort the stricken liner RMS Empress of Britain, which had been attacked by a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft.
[40] During this time, the destroyer was upgraded again with four single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon replacing the Vickers machine guns and allocated, along with five remaining sister ships, to the 21st Escort Group.
[49][50] Like all the remaining S class, Sardonyx was beginning to show the strains of age, exacerbated by the demands of service in the North Atlantic and the impact of a relatively large armament on a small hull.
After each deployment, when the ship returned to harbour, it was rare that there was not some damage from bad weather which meant that the destroyer spent an increasingly large amount of time in repair rather than service.
[50][51] Amongst the crew at the time was the future Admiral of the Fleet Henry Leach, who served as a midshipman before being promoted to sub-lieutenant on 1 October 1942.
His role included censoring photographs, for example of the survivors of the merchant ship SS Yorktown that had been sunk by U-619 on 28 September 1942, taken as they climbed aboard the destroyer.
[40] Alongside Sabre, Saladin and Scimitar, the destroyer took part in Operation Rosegarden in June 1943, an attempt to strike at German submarines transiting the gap between Iceland and Scotland.
[58] The operation was unsuccessful as the aging destroyers were unable to sustain speed in the severe weather, and a similar deployment the following summer was cancelled.