At the beginning of 1929, the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets combined for their annual fleet manoeuvres in the Mediterranean Sea. While visiting Torquay, Devon, for a fleet rendezvous in July, "Rodney" was ordered to go to the assistance of two submarines that had collided off Milford Haven, Wales, on the 9th. Ordered to steam at full speed, the ship arrived at Pembroke Dock the following morning to load rescue and salvage equipment. Delayed for a day by weather too bad for diving, she arrived at the site the following evening, but it was too late for any survivors of and "Rodney" set sail for HM Dockyard, Portsmouth. The ship's propulsion machinery was proving troublesome by this time and she was docked there in late September for a refit that took the rest of the year. Captain Andrew Cunningham, later First Sea Lord, relieved Tottenham on 15 December.