She was involved in a minesweeping exercise off the Dogger Bank during the night of 10 February 1916, when she was encountered by a flotilla of German torpedo boats.

The Arabis class was a slightly enlarged and improved derivative of the previous Acacia-class and Azalea-class sloops.

[1][a] They were designed at the start of the First World War as relatively fast minesweepers that could also carry out various miscellaneous duties in support of the fleet such as acting as dispatch vessels or carrying out towing operations, but as the war continued and the threat from German submarines grew, became increasingly involved in anti-submarine duties.

[11] On 10 February a force of 25 German torpedo boats of the 2nd, 6th and 9th Torpedo-boat flotillas set out on a sortie into the North Sea.

Arabis was ordered to remain underway in the vicinity of the buoy, while the other three ships steamed south-east and north-west.