HMAS Swordsman

HMAS Swordsman was one of 55 S-class destroyers built for the (British) Admiralty under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program of World War I. It was completed in 1919 and shortly afterwards gifted to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Swordsman and HMA Ships Stalwart, Success, Tasmania, Tattoo and Anzac (the flotilla leader) were replacements for the RAN’s obsolete River-class destroyers.

Commissioned into the RAN at Devonport, England, on 27 January 1920 under the command of the Royal Navy’s Lieutenant Commander C. E. Hughes-White, DSC, it sailed for Australia on 20 February in company with Success, Tasmania and Tattoo and arrived in Sydney on 29 April 1920.

In September 1920 Swordsman assisted in the search for a missing schooner, SS Amelia J, which had disappeared between Newcastle and Hobart. The search was later extended to include a missing barquentine, SS Southern Cross and, a little later, a De Havilland biplane. Ironically, the De Havilland had been part of the search for the missing ships. Wreckage and ten survivors were found from Southern Cross but no trace of either Amelia J, the De Havilland or their crews was found. 

Post-war cuts to defence spending saw a number of RAN vessels decommissioned; Swordsman was one of them. It was decommissioned at Sydney on 6 September 1922 and placed in the reserve. Recommissioned as the flotilla leader on 4 August 1926, Swordsman subsequently served in eastern Australian waters until 21 December 1929 when it was again decommissioned and placed in the reserve. The destroyer was sold for breaking up on 4 June 1937.