HMS Peterel (1927)

HMS Peterel was a river gunboat built by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun for service on the China station, on the Yang Tse, which entered service on 18 July 1927. Her name was a mistake - she should have been named Petrel as per the bird, but this was not noticed until after she had been launched. No attempt was made to correct it. She was rescued by the French gunboat Doudart de Lagrée in 1930.

Peterel was the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk by the Japanese navy in World War II, being shelled by the old Japanese armored cruiser Izumo on 8 December 1941 at Shanghai after refusing to surrender. The commanding officer of HMS Peterel on 8 December 1941 was Temporary Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn (RNR). He survived the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross "For great courage, determination and tenacity in fighting his ship, HMS Peterel, when attacked by overwhelming Japanese forces at Shanghai". At the time she was acting as a communications station manned only by a skeleton crew. The story of her sinking and the subsequent internment of her crew is the subject of a book The Lonely Battle by Desmond Wettern published by W H Allen in 1960.