[1] They were powered by a three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine developing 1,400 horsepower (1,000 kW) and driving twin screws.

The design of the Condor class differed from the screw sloops of the 1860s only in an evolutionary sense (although constructed of steel and armed with quick-loading guns, they retained the sails and layout of the earlier vessels); by the turn of the twentieth-century, they were thoroughly obsolete.

The overseas stations of the Royal Navy were responsible for patrolling the maritime British Empire, and these ships were intended for that role.

According to Hansard, it was stated by the Secretary to the Admiralty about the almost identical Cadmus class in Parliament on 6 March 1905 that they were never designed for fighting purposes but for subsidiary work in peace or war, for which they are still available, and in which they are at the present moment engaged.During her short career, Condor served on the Pacific Station.

[7] Rosario relieved HMS Rattler on the China Station in June 1900, and re-commissioned at Hong Kong on 5 November 1913, becoming a depot ship for submarines.

While being delivered from Birkenhead to Portsmouth an incident in Mutine's boiler rooms caused some loss of life and gave her a name as an unlucky ship before her career even began.

Rinaldo served in Southeast Asia, including taking medical assistance to Brunei in August 1904 during an outbreak of smallpox.