HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns.

[2] Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby,[1] the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, her hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking.

She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine driving a single screw, produced by Hawthorn Leslie.

Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 15 January 1883 and she was launched on 14 November 1883.

Her entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service.