but they were not fitted until after she was completed. A second catapult, intended to be mounted on 'B' turret, was deleted from the design during construction. Service York was laid down by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, on 18 May 1927, launched on 17 July 1928 and was completed on 1 May 1930. She became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Drax, then his successor, Vice-Admiral Matthew R. Best, of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet upon commissioning. Between 1931 and 1934 she was commanded by Captain Richard Bevan, who was succeeded in Bermuda by Captain H.P. Boxer. The ship played a primary role in the Jubilee Day celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of George V that took place in the City of Hamilton, Bermuda, on the 6 May 1935. She was brought in through the channel to berth with special precautions at the Royal Naval Dockyard during the hurricane that struck Bermuda on 30 November 1935 when winds speeds reached 86 miles per hour (the Dockyard had been extensively damaged during a hurricane in October 1926, which had also sunk the sloop with the loss of 85 of her crew). York was detached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935 and 1936 for the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, before returning to the American Station until the outbreak of war in September 1939. The ship was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia that same month for convoy escort duties (as the circumference of the perimeter of one large convoy was relatively smaller for its area than those of two smaller convoys, requiring fewer escort vessels, convoys originating at Bermuda and Halifax, coded BHX and HX respectively, merged prior to crossing the Atlantic as HX convoys, often with only a single escort early in the war, as was the case with the ill-fated Convoy HX 84). In October 1939, York was assigned to Force F at Halifax, which was active in hunting for commerce raiders and protecting convoys. She was briefly refitted in Bermuda between 31 October and 22 November before she returned to Great Britain for a more thorough refit in December. Upon its completion on 9 February York was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of Home Fleet. On 3 March 1940 the ship intercepted the German blockade runner Arucas in the Denmark Strait near Iceland, but she was scuttled by her own crew before she could be