HMS Desperate was a two funnel, 30-knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1894 – 1895 Naval Estimates.

She was laid down as yard number 305 on 1 July 1895 at the John I. Thornycroft & Company shipyard at Chiswick on the River Thames.

On 26 June 1897 she was present at the Royal Naval Review at Spithead in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

[4] Two months later, she was transferred to Chatham to relieve the destroyer Spitfire in the Medway Fleet Reserve.

The ship's boat carrying twelve seaman was swamped resulting in seven sailors drowning.

After 30 September 1913, she was known as a D-class destroyer and had the letter ‘D’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.