HMS Wolverine was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was one of four destroyers ordered in April 1918 from James Samuel White & Co Ltd under the 14th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Programme of 1917–1918. She was the seventh Royal Navy Ship to carry the name. It had been introduced in 1798 for a gun brig and last borne by a destroyer sunk after a collision in 1917.
Construction
Wolverines keel was laid on 8 October 1918 at the James Samuel White & Co. Ltd. Shipyard in Cowes, Isle of Wight. She was launched on 17 July 1919. She was overall in length with a beam of . Her mean draught was, and would reach under full load. She had a displacement of 1,140 tons standard and up to 1,550 full load.
She was propelled by three White-Foster type water-tube boilers powering Parsons geared steam turbines developing driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of . She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of . This gave a range of between at and at . Nothing further was heard from U-47 after this time.
In April 1941 Wolverine deployed with and , the escort force for Convoy SC 26. Under sustained attacks by U-46, U-74 and U-73 six ships were sunk and several others were damaged. On 5 April, after sonar contact was made, Wolverine and Scarborough depth-charged to the surface. U-76 sank by the stern after her crew was rescued.
In February 1942 Wolverine was converted to a short-range escort (SRE). To augment the earlier changes, the replacement of the after bank of torpedo tubes with a single QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun and the landing of 'Y' gun for additional space for depth charge gear and stowage, the 2-pounder "pompoms" were replaced with two Oerlikon 20 mm cannons amidships and the 'A' gun was replaced with a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar. A Type 271 target indication radar was added on the bridge to augment the Type 286M air warning radar. In April she undertook training and practice under her new captain, Commander P W Gretton (promoted to Vice Admiral and knighted after the war).