The name had already been used for a class of 98 gunboats built during the Great Armament of the Crimean War.

The Albacore class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Admiralty Director of Naval Construction.

This had the advantage of allowing the vessels to be coppered, thus keeping marine growth under control, a problem that caused iron-hulled ships to be frequently docked.

[1] They were a slightly larger version of the Forester and Banterer classes that preceded them.

[1] Two-cylinder compound-expansion steam engines built by the builder, Laird Brothers of Birkenhead, provided 650 indicated horsepower through a single screw, sufficient for 10.7 knots (19.8 km/h; 12.3 mph).