[2] The ship was built by William Hamilton and Company, Port Glasgow, with turbine engines supplied by J. Samuel White of Cowes.

[2] On the morning of 3 February 1940 the Flotilla was minesweeping in the Moray Firth, 15 miles north of Kinnaird Head, in position 57°57′N 02°00′W / 57.950°N 2.000°W / 57.950; -2.000, when it came under attack by German aircraft.

Sphinx was hit by a bomb, which penetrated the foredeck and exploded, killing five men, including the commanding officer Cdr.

In the third of the 1996 Christmas special episodes, Time on Our Hands, Uncle Albert describes the ship as a frigate on which he served in the Adriatic during World War II.

He explains to the main protagonist, Delboy, how a fictional Captain Kenworthy faked an outbreak of cholera aboard the ship to distract the crew from their other worries.