[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] Somme, the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,[5] was ordered on 9 April 1917 as part of the Eleventh War Programme from Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company.

[7] The Royal Navy was reorganised after the end of the First World War,[8] with Somme joining the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla in March 1919.

[9] By January 1920, Somme had been transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, being allocated to a reserve division of the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla.

[10] Somme, along with sister ships Serapis and Steadfast was ordered to join the British forces in the Black Sea on 16 January 1920 and had arrived at Constantinople by the end of the month.