She was laid down as yard number 308 on 15 September 1895 at the John I. Thornycroft & Company shipyard at Chiswick on the River Thames.

Lieutenant Guy de Lancy Ormsby Johnson was appointed in command on 11 January 1900,[2] when she served as part of the Medway instructional flotilla.

[4][5] Lieutenant Charles Tuthill Borrett was appointed in command on 20 January 1901,[6] and she served in Home waters and was until October 1901 attached to the Medway instructional flotilla.

[7] In early April 1902 Lieutenant George J. Todd was appointed in command,[8] shortly before she finished a refit where she also had her hull strengthened.

In November 1917 she deployed to the Irish Sea Hunting Flotilla until the cessation of hostilities providing anti-submarine and counter-smuggling patrols.