The three Charger-class destroyers were all ordered by the British Admiralty on 12 October 1893 and on completion in early 1896 they served with the Royal Navy until 1911.

As was typical for torpedo craft at the time, the Admiralty left detailed design to the builders, laying down only broad requirements.

[1][2] Charger, Dasher and Hasty were built by Yarrow Shipbuilders to their builders' design at a contract price of £108,600, or £36,200 each,[3] It was originally intended that they would be armed with one 12-pounder quick-firing gun forward and three 6-pounder guns, mounted on the broadside and aft, and three 18-inch torpedo tubes, one fixed in a bow mount and two on a revolving mount abaft the two funnels;[4] however the fixed bow tube fitted in the preceding '26-knotter' type had subsequently been found to throw up too much spray and was removed, and in October 1893 it was agreed that the bow tube should be omitted, giving "a clean sharp stem with no projections"[5] and instead two extra 6-pounder guns were installed en echelon amidships.

These three ships - and the similar three Ardent Class destroyers (ordered from Thornycroft in the same week) - were the first TBDs to omit this fixed bow tube.

They carried a complement of 2 officers and 48 ratings (comprising 20 deck department and 28 engine room compartment).