upon the submarine, dropping three depth charges and scaring it away. On 4 June 1917, Sharpshooter was deployed as part of a large group of seven cruisers and twenty-five destroyers to protect the monitors and in their bombardment of the German held Belgian port of Ostend. At 2:30 in the morning of 5 June, the destroyer was part of a flotilla of four cruisers and nine destroyers that were patrolling off Thornton Bank when they spotted the German destroyers S15 and S20. A vigorous battle ensued, during which a torpedo narrowly missed Sharpshooter, passing astern. Along with , and , Sharpshooter damaged S15 and sank S20. The flotilla subsequently undertook anti-submarine patrols, but the destroyer did not sight an enemy boat. The rest of the war was uneventful apart from 1 June 1918 when the destroyer rescued one of the first pilots of the Royal Australian Navy, Captain A. C. Sharwood, who ditched his Sopwith 2F.1 Camel, operated from , nearby. Sharpshooter remained part of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla at the end of the war. After the conflict, the ship was transferred to the Gunnery School at Portsmouth and, on 5 March 1919, was reduced to Reduced Complement. In 1923, the Navy decided to scrap many of the older destroyers in preparation for the introduction of newer and larger vessels. Sharpshooter was sold for scrap to Thos. W. Ward at Briton Ferry on 29 April 1927. Pennant numbers References Citations Bibliography 1917 ships Ships built on the River Clyde R-class destroyers (1916) World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom