HMS Rambler was an Algerine-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy, built by John Elder & Co., Glasgow and launched on 26 January 1880.

[1] It had been found that the addition of both poop and focsle made gunvessels far more comfortable in the tropics; an awning spread between the two allowed men to sleep on the upper deck during hot nights.

[2] A two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine provided by the builders produced 690 ihp (510 kW) through a single screw, giving a speed of about 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h).

She recommissioned on 1 February 1889 at Hong Kong,[4][Note 1] where she conducted extensive soundings and triangulation surveys after participating in the Boer War.

[9] In May 1902 she was back at the China station, Captain Morris Henry Smyth in command,[10] and in November that year she is reported leaving Nagasaki for Amoy.