The mutiny was quelled when Admiral John Green threatened to open fire on the Cicala; five men were sentenced to imprisonment by court-martial over the matter.

The Insect-class gunboats were reportedly built as river monitors to operate on the Danube in the case of an Allied success in the 1915–16 Dardanelles campaign but may also have been intended for use in the Baltic Sea to support a proposed (but never implemented) amphibious landing against Germany.

The vessel was equipped with two Yarrow-type engines and boilers providing 2,000 steam horsepower and allowing her to reach 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h).

In June 1919 her crew mutinied, refusing orders to sail up the River Dvina to engage Bolshevik artillery batteries.

Other British vessels had run aground in shallow waters and come under attack from the batteries, gun barges, floating mines and aircraft.

[8] Green's senior officer, Rear Admiral Walter Cowan, was uncertain if the crew could be tried for mutiny as it was a wartime-only offence and Britain had not formally declared war against the Bolsheviks.

The Admiralty in London confirmed that charges could be brought and Cowan's court-martial sentenced five ringleaders to death, afterwards commuted to five years imprisonment.

Cicala put aboard a naval guard party and escorted the vessel to Shiuhing (Zhaoqing) where at least 10 suspects were arrested.

[14][15] Cicala's name was reused later in the Second World War for the stone frigate established at the Royal Dart Hotel at Kingswear, Devon.