HMS Hawkins ( D86 ) HMS " Hawkins " was a " Hawkins " - class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy . She was built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 1 October 1917 . With the conversion of her sister , HMS " Cavendish " , to become the aircraft carrier HMS " Vindictive " , HMS " Hawkins " became the name ship of her class . Interwar career . HMS " Hawkins " was commissioned on 25 July 1919 and became the flagship of the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron on the China Station . She spent less than a decade in active service before being paid off at Chatham to undergo a refit . During this refit , her coal - fired boilers were removed and the remaining oil - fired boilers modified . She recommissioned in December 1929 , and became the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron as part of the Atlantic Fleet . " Hawkins " was decommissioned again in May 1930 and reduced to the Reserve Fleet . She was recommissioned again in 1932 to become the Flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies , before again being reduced to the reserve in April 1935 . The terms of the London Naval Treaty meant that in 1937 , " Hawkins " was demilitarised and had all her 7 . 5 inch guns and the deck mounted torpedo tubes removed before she was again returned to reserve status . In September 1938 plans were drawn up to utilise " Hawkins " as a Cadets ' Training Ship . Wartime service . When the Second World War broke out in 1939 , " Hawkins " was rearmed and recommissioned to become the flagship to Rear Admiral Henry Harwood , after the Battle of the River Plate . She patrolled off the South American coast , operating as far south as the Falklands . She left Montevideo on 5 September 1940 to sail to Simonstown , South Africa for a refit . Before she could make use of the dry dock , it was occupied by the aircraft carrier HMS " Hermes " , which was undergoing repairs after having been damaged in a collision with a merchant ship . " Hawkins " was diverted to Durban where she spent seven weeks waiting before she was able to dock in the Selborne dry dock at Simonstown . " Hawkins " also rescued nine of the crew from the tanker SS " British Premier " , which had been torpedoed off Freetown by " U - 65 " . During February 1941 " Hawkins " was active off the East coast of Africa , supporting the British reconquest of British Somaliland and subsequent pushes into Italian Somalia from Kenya as part of Force T of the East Indies Fleet . She also captured a number of Italian and German merchant ships attempting to escape the fall of the former Italian territory , including the . She later provided escorts for convoys and intercepted Vichy French and neutral shipping . Whilst off Mauritius her starboard outboard shaft fractured and she lost her screw and shafting . She spent the period between 10 October to the 28 October in the Selborne dry dock , before departing on 2 November to refit and repair in the U . K . The repairs were completed by May 1942 and " Hawkins " left to join the Eastern Fleet , and again escorted ships around the African coast , with periods in drydock for repairs and refits . One of the ships she escorted was the SS " Khedive Ismail " , later torpedoed by a Japanese submarine with heavy loss of life . In June 1944 she returned to British waters , where she was involved in Operation Neptune , as part of the Western Task Force Gunfire Support Bombardment Force A , for Utah Beach . Before this , she had been involved in Exercise Tiger , a disastrous attempt to rehearse the landings . In August she was again designated as a Training Ship . Decommissioning and scrapping . In 1945 " Hawkins " was reduced to reserve for the last time . In January 1947 she was allocated for ship target trials , and was bombed by Royal Air Force Avro Lincoln bombers off Spithead . She was sold for scrap on 21 August 1947 and broken up in December that year at the yards of Arnott Young at Dalmuir .