Type: .................... Destroyer 'V' Class
Pennant: ............... D69
Displacement: ...... 1,090 tons (standard)
Length: ................. 312 feet 1 inch (overall)
Beam: ................... 29 feet 6 inches
Draught: ............... 9 feet 8 inches (mean deep load)
Speed: .................. 34 knots
Laid Down: .......... 25th November 1916
Launched: ............ 3rd September 1917
Armament: ........... 4x4 inch guns; 1x2 par gun; 1 Vickers gun .303; 4 Lewis guns .303; 6x21 inch Torpedo Tubes (triple mount);
50 Depth Charges Modified; 2x4 inch guns; 2x2 par guns; 4 Oerlikons; 3 Vickers .303; 4 Lewis .303; 50 Depth Charges
Builders: ............... Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Glasgow
Machinery: ........... 2 Brown Curtis Turbines (twin screw)
Boilers: ................. 3 Yarrow (3 drum type)
Endurance: ........... 3,800 miles at 15 knots 920 miles at maximum speed

Following commissioning on 17th October 1917 VENDETTA joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla and shortly afterwards saw her first action when on patrol she engaged German minesweepers in the Kattegat.

On 17th November 1917 operating as a screening destroyer to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (CALEDON, GALATEA, ROYALIST and INCONSTANT) she took part in the Heligoland Bight action against German cruiser forces. In 1918 VENDETTA was engaged as a patrolling destroyer and on fleet escort duties.

On 12th December 1918 in the Baltic she rescued 430 of the total crew of 470 of HMS CASSANDRA when that vessel struck a mine and sank. Later in the same month as one of the British naval units supporting the White Russian forces, VENDETTA engaged and drove ashore on Devil's Rock near Reval, the Bolshevik destroyer SPARTAK.

Early the following year (1919) also off Reval she assisted in the capture of the Bolshevik destroyer LENNUK. In 1919 she was engaged towing surrendered German destroyers from Scapa Flow to Rosyth and the following year was present at Zeebrugge when her captain (Lieutenant Commander Nash) handed over HMS VINDICTIVE to the Belgians. In April 1923 VENDETTA was again in the Baltic and was inspected by Marshal Pilsudski, President of Poland at Gdynia. Here the crew met their old adversary SPARTAK then a unit of the Estonian Navy and renamed NAMBOIA. In the same year she rescued the crew of the IMPERIAL PRINCE wrecked off Aberdeen.

In 1924 she served in the Mediterranean (5th Flotilla) and Red Sea operating as a patrol vessel during the Jeddah war fought between Ali, King of Hedjaz and Ibn Saud, Sultan of Nejd. In March 1925 she was one of the escort for the Royal Yacht VICTORIA AND ALBERT during the Mediterranean tour of King George V and Queen Mary.

VENDETTA served in the Mediterranean with the 1st and 5th Flotillas from 1924 to 1933. In 1933 Admiralty agreed to lend the Flotilla leader STUART and four 'V' Class destroyers (VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER and WATERHEN) to the Royal Australian Navy as replacement for the 'S' Class destroyers (STALWART, SUCCESS, SWORDSMAN, TASMANIA and TATTOO) and the Flotilla leader ANZAC then due for scrapping. VENDETTA and the other four ships commissioned in the RAN at Portsmouth on 11th October 1933 to form the Australian Destroyer Flotilla, later to become famous as the 'Scrap Iron Flotilla'. The Flotilla departed Chatham under the command of Captain A.G Lilley, RN, on 17th October 1933 and proceeding via Suez reached Singapore on 28th November, Darwin on 7th December and Sydney on 21st December 1933.