{| {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Norway |Ship flag= |Ship name=HNoMS St Albans |Ship namesake= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=14 April 1941 |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Returned to United Kingdom, 4 May 1944<ref name=mk>Dashyan, A.V.: Korabli Vtoroy mirovoy voyny – VMS Polshy i stran Skandinavii (Danii, Norwegii, Shvetsii i Finlandii)" (Корабли Второй мировой войны – ВМС Польши и стран Скандинавии (Дании, Норвегии, Швеции и Финляндии)), Morskaya Kollektsya nr. 3/2005 </ref> |Ship notes= }} |} The first USS Thomas (DD–182) was a of the United States Navy that entered service just after World War I. She was transferred to the Royal Navy becoming the , HMS St Albans (I15) and was used for convoy escort work. In April 1941 St Albans was transferred to the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy retaining her name as HNoMS St Albans In mid-1944, St Albans was transferred to the Soviet Navy as Dostoyny. Service history As USS Thomas Named after Clarence Crase Thomas, she was laid down on 23 March 1918 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company; Virginia. It was launched on 4 July 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Evelyn M. Thomas, widow of the namesake; and commissioned on 25 April 1919.Thomas operated off the east coast on training cruises and exercises until decommissioned at Philadelphia on 30 June 1922. In the Navy-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920 she was as classified as DD-182. After leaving service she lay in reserve in the Philadelphia Navy Yard's back channel for the next 18 years. Recommissioned on 17 June 1940 – as the United States Navy expanded to meet the demands imposed by Neutrality Patrols off American coastlines – Thomas was assigned to Destroyer Division 79 of the Atlantic Squadron and operated briefly in training and exercises off the eastern seaboard. The "destroyer-for-bases" agreement was made between the UK and the US at the start of September 1940 - under it 50 WWI-era destroyers were transferred to the British in exchange for eases on strategic base sites in the western hemisphere. She arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 18 September 1940 and officially turned over to the Royal Navy on 23 September 1940. Her name was subsequently struck from the United States Navy list on 8 January 1941. As HMS St Albans Simultaneously renamed HMS St Albans (I15) and commissioned