On 2 February 1900, she was commissioned as tender to HMS Vivid, shore establishment at Devonport, for service in the Devonport Instructional flotilla,[4] A mere week into her commission, Fairy dragged her moorings while in the Falmouth harbour, and had her bow on the starboard side and her stem badly damaged as she drifted into other ships of the flotilla.

[8] From August 1914, she was deployed in the 8th Destroyer Flotilla based at the Firth of Forth, but the next month detached from that formation.

In July 1917, she was transferred to the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, on the east coast of England, where she would be engaged in convoy work.

[9] On 31 May 1918, while Fairy was escorting an East Coast convoy, the German submarine UC-75 was sighted and rammed by the steamer SS Blaydonian.

Fairy, however, had sustained heavy damage and sank a short time later about 10 miles (16 km) south of Flamborough Head.