[1] HMS Fervent was one of two "twenty-seven knotter" torpedo boat destroyers ordered from the Scottish shipyard Hanna, Donald & Wilson on 7 November 1893 as part of the Royal Navy's 1893–1894 construction programme.

[2][a] The Admiralty laid down broad requirements for the destroyers, including a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) on sea trials, a "turtleback" forecastle and armament, which was to vary depending on whether the ship was to be used in the torpedo boat or gunboat role.

[14] The fire-tube locomotive boilers chosen by Hanna, Donald & Wilson were prone to leaks in their copper water-jacketed fireboxes,[15] and the two ships were unable to reach the required speed.

[19] Lieutenant Cecil Halsted France-Hayhurst was appointed in command in March 1902,[20] but the ship was temporarily paid off at Portsmouth the following month to be strengthened,[21] after she and her sister suffered hull damage below the waterline while being driven into a head sea in heavy weather in the English Channel.

[22] With France-Hayhurst transferred to attend a signal course,[21] Lieutenant Walter Reginald Glynn Petre was appointed in command of Fervent on 21 June 1902,[23] when she joined the Portsmouth instructional flotilla.

[25] On the way to the Court Martial, Fervent ran into a mooring buoy in Sheerness harbour, damaging her stem so that she had to go into dry dock for repair.

[28][29][30] By February 1913, Fervent was not part of an active flotilla, but was attached as a tender to the torpedo school at Chatham, with a nucleus crew,[31] although she was in full commission by May 1913.