The British Admiralty ordered two "thirty-knotter" torpedo boat destroyers from John I. Thornycroft & Company as part of the 1895–96 shipbuilding programme for the Royal Navy.

The two ships, Angler and Ariel were repeats of the four thirty-knotters ordered from Thornycroft under the previous year's programme (Desperate, Fame, Foam and Mallard) and as such shared the same design features.

[8][9] She was laid down as yard number 314 on 23 April 1896 at Thornycroft's shipyard at Chiswick on the River Thames and was launched on 5 March 1897.

[14] On 5 November 1904 in the context of the aftermath of the Dogger Bank incident she shadowed the Russian fleet leaving Tangier.

[15] On 19 April 1907, Ariel was wrecked when she ran aground on a breakwater just outside Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta, at night.