The ship was sent to the White Sea later in the year to support the North Russia intervention in the Russian Civil War.

The engines were designed to produce a total of 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW) which was intended to give a maximum speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).

[2] When Attentive ran her sea trials, she reached a speed of 25.9 knots (48.0 km/h; 29.8 mph) from 16,212 ihp (12,089 kW) for eight hours.

[3] The Adventure-class cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of 2,370 nautical miles (4,390 km; 2,730 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[9] The following year, on 27 April 1908, Attentive was involved in a series of accidents during a live-firing exercise at night with the Eastern Destroyer Flotilla.

[10] After refit in August 1912 at HM Dockyard, Devonport, Attentive was assigned to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron in 1913 for the annual manoeuvres and was then transferred to lead the 9th Destroyer Flotilla at Portsmouth.

[7] During the Curragh incident of 1914 the ship was deployed to Ireland with HMS Pathfinder, and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill threatened to "pour enough shot and shell into Belfast to reduce it to ruins" if the Ulster Volunteers revolted against the British Armed Forces.

She spent a few months off Murmansk, North Russia, supporting British forces intervening in the Russian Civil War.