HMS Sharpshooter was a of the British Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard, Sharpshooter was completed in 1937. She served through the Second World War, acting both in her designed role as minesweeper and as a convoy escort, escorting several Arctic convoys. She took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, and sank the in 1942. Post war, she was converted to a survey ship, and was renamed HMS Shackleton in 1953. She was laid up into reserve in 1961 and sold for scrap in 1965. Design The Halcyon class were a class of dedicated minesweepers, designed to be smaller and cheaper than the dual-purpose (minesweeping and colonial patrol vessel) minesweeping sloops that had been built since the late 1920s (i.e. the , and ), which as their design evolved, were becoming increasingly focused on escort duties and becoming too large for use as minesweepers. Sharpshooter was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of at deep load. Displacement was standard and deep load. Two Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers supplied steam to geared steam turbines driving two shafts. The machinery was rated at giving a speed of . Armament consisted of two QF 4 inch (102 mm) Mk V guns on High-Angle mounts and so capable of being used for anti-aircraft duties, with a close-in armament of one quadruple Vickers .50 machine gun mount. One of the 4-inch guns was removed during the Second World War, while the multiple machine guns were replaced by 4–8 Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. Up to 40 depth charges could be carried when used in the escort role. The ship had a crew of 80 officers and other ranks. Construction Sharpshooter was ordered on 2 March 1936 under the 1935 shipbuilding programme and was laid down at Devonport Naval Dockyard on 8 June 1936. She was launched on 10 December 1936 and completed on 17 December 1937. Service Following commissioning (where she received the pennant number N68 - this was changed to J68 in 1940) Sharpshooter joined the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla based at Portland. Along with the rest of her Flotilla, Sharpshooter moved to Scapa Flow, the Flotilla's war station, from August to September 1938 during the Munich crisis. With other ships of the flotilla she took part in the search in June 1939 for the submarine Thetis which had sunk in Liverpool Bay. She then operated with the