British 'M' class destroyers of which the Royal Navy had 90 that were excess to requirements and sold or discarded during the 1920's. These ships were purchased by many countries. Chile as part of its reparation package got 20 to go with the 5 Almirante Lynch class destroyer leaders. 4 of which were capable of being used as minelayers.
Little was done to the ships through to the 1930's when various refits gave them AA mountings for the 4", while this gave the mountings a high angle capability, for firing at aircraft, they could still only be loaded at the -5 to +30 degree angle. While not ideal, it was a cheap upgrade the Chileans could do to the ships themselves. They were to be replaced in service by the Serrano Class ships but the continued tensions with Argentina kept the Chilean Admiralty putting off any decision on their future. The four minelayers had a bit more work done to them to keep them in service as these ships would be the ones to mine the Straits of Magellan in time of war, to deny the strait to the enemy
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These ships just made it into WW2. The ships were to be discarded starting in 1940. What eventually happened was the four minelayers were kept at front line condition and formed a part of the Chilean Force Magellan guarding the Straits. The other sixteen were kept in the Pacific, escorting small convoys up and down the coasts of North and South America. Eventually the escorts were reduced to twelve with the other four being cannibalised for parts to keep them in service. Various wartime upgrades were given to the ships lucky enough to make it up into US waters to a US refit center. 40mm and 20mm replaced the center 4", and 2pd AA guns, while the two twin torpedo tubes were replaced with one triple (removed from the four pipers as they were rebuilt), forward boiler room removed and converted for extra oil stowage.
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