[1] The ships were powered by two four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines fed by 12 Vickers-Express water-tube boilers, and driving a pair of three-bladed propellers.

[2] Skirmisher, the only ship of her name to serve with the Royal Navy,[7] was laid down at Vickers, Sons & Maxim's Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 29 July 1903 and was launched on 7 February 1905.

While the British had been warned by radio intercepts that the Germans were likely to carry out some sort of action, and sent out forces from the Grand Fleet to intercept, Admiral George A. Ballard, Admiral of Patrols in overall command of all the patrol flotillas, had, owing to poor weather, ordered the forces under his command to remain in harbor until they received explicit orders to sail.

Heavy seas forced Ballard to send the torpedo boats back to port, while he searched up the coast in Skirmisher for the German raiders.

[15] In May 1915 Skirmisher, still based on the Humber, joined the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, with duties including patrolling to spot German Zeppelins.

[18][19][20] On 20 January 1918, the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (formerly the German Goeben) and light cruiser Midilli (formerly Breslau) made a sortie into the Mediterranean from the Dardanelles.

On hearing of the attack on the monitors, Captain P. W. Dumas, commander of the old pre-dreadnought battleship Agamemnon, in port at the British base of Mudos with Skirmisher, the scout Foresight and the light cruiser Lowestoft, ordered these ships to raise steam in preparation to set out against the enemy force.

Meanwhile, Vice-Admiral Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz, commander of the Turkish force[note 1] ordered Yavuz and Midilli to attack Mudros.

By the time the British ships had left Mudros harbor, Yavuz was re-entering the Dardanelles, protected against surface attack by shore batteries.