Built at Pembroke Dockyard and completed in 1911, Blonde led the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla during Mediterranean training and then the First Destroyer Flotilla of the First Fleet, a short-lived forerunner of the Grand Fleet. She joined the Fourth Battle Squadron before the First World War, putting her fleet-support role into practice. During a 1916 patrol with the Faulknor-class destroyer leader HMS Broke, an Egerton depth charge exploded accidentally, damaging Blonde's upper deck and killing crewmen. The accident prompted withdrawal of that depth-charge type from Grand Fleet use and a refit that kept Blonde out of Jutland. She later returned to battle-squadron duty, transferred to the First Battle Squadron, and underwent conversion as a minelayer without laying mines operationally. After entering reserve, she was sold and broken up in the Netherlands.
Chapter · 23:22-27:40
HMS Blonde from flotilla leader to minelayer
HMS Blonde moved from destroyer-flotilla leadership to battle-squadron support, survived a fatal depth-charge accident, and was later converted for minelaying.