Built at Chatham Dockyard with engines by Messrs Humphreys and Tennant, Alexandra was the last of a long series of progressive steps in the development of vessels of her type.

It had been intended to call the ship HMS Superb, but the name was changed at her launching, which was undertaken by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra) on 7 April 1875.

[2] The religious element of the service (the first at a ship launch since the Reformation) was conducted by Archibald Campbell Tait the then Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by Thomas Legh Claughton, the Bishop of Rochester.

[4] On 9 February,[5] she ran aground in bad weather at the narrowest part of the strait and was towed off by HMS Sultan in time to lead the squadron to Constantinople.

[6] She was present at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882; in this action the Admiral's flag was shifted to HMS Invincible, as she was of shallower draught and could sail closer to shore.

Alexandra was featured in the first volume of the Navy and Army Illustrated in early c. April 1896 and was then described as a "coastguard ship at Portsmouth" with her principal armament being eight 18-tons guns, four 22-ton, six 4-inch and four six-pounder and six three-pounder quick firers.