 The ship was completed on 7 September 1946 and renamed "Surprise" with the pennant number K346.After sea trials "Surprise" was commissioned in September 1946, and sailed to Valletta, Malta, where she remained with the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet for exercises and visits throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, with periodic refits at HM Dockyard, Valletta.In November 1952 "Surprise" returned to Portsmouth.