A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead.

[2][1] Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.

Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, Rattlesnake was, like the larger torpedo cruisers and the Curlew-class gunvessels, built in response to the Russian War scare.

[3][4][5] Rattlesnake took part in the 1893 British Naval Manoeuvres in the Irish Sea in late July–early August that year.

[9] In August 1902 she was reported to unship her gun mountings to become tender to HMS Narcissus, instructional cruiser to the gunnery school at Portsmouth.