On 1 June 1918, the destroyer rescued Captain A. C. Sharwood, one of the first pilots of the Royal Australian Navy, who ditched his Sopwith 2F.1 Camel nearby.

Sharpshooter was one of ten R-class destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty in December 1915 as part of the Seventh War Construction Programme.

A total of 296 long tons (301 t) of fuel 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).

[6] The destroyer was engaged in escort duties and, on 9 April, was accompanying a convoy travelling east from the Netherlands when it was attacked by the German submarine UB-31.

[7] On 4 June 1917, Sharpshooter was deployed as part of a large group of seven cruisers and twenty-five destroyers to protect the monitors Erebus and Terror in their bombardment of the German held Belgian port of Ostend.

[12] The rest of the war was uneventful apart from 1 June 1918 when the destroyer rescued one of the first pilots of the Royal Australian Navy, Captain A. C. Sharwood, who ditched his Sopwith 2F.1 Camel, operated from Sydney, nearby.