HMS Columbine
In 1917, a new destroyer base at Port Edgar was officially named HMS Columbine. In 1918 the entire Grand Fleet
was transferred from Scapa Flow to the Firth of Forth making Port Edgar a very busy place. Throughout the early and mid-1920s
HMS Columbine flourished as the Atlantic Fleet’s destroyer base but in 1926 the destroyers’ spent only 14 weeks at the base and
by 1927 it was being used even less often. The Admiralty decided to close the base in 1928, running operations down to just
a care and maintenance basis and keeping the oil fuel depot and oiling jetty in service.