[3] The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[4] Scythe, the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,[5] was ordered on 23 June 1917 as part of the Twelfth War Programme from John Brown & Company.

The ship was laid down at the company's Clydebank shipyard on 14 January 1918, launched on 25 May 1918, completed on 7 July[6] and commissioned that same month.

Between October 1923 and January 1925 her first lieutenant was Frederick Bell,[10] later to earn fame as the captain of HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate.

Scythe was involved in a shooting incident at Queenstown (modern-day Cobh) on 21 March 1924, when machine gun fire was directed at her.