[1] During naval manoeuvres in 1892 Spanker and the monitor Gorgon were disabled by leaky boilers and defective steering gear.

Lieutenant Damant and Gunner Catto, from the Spanker, descended into a Scottish loch in diving-suits to the depth of 210 feet (64 m), at that time a record for the British Isles.

[7] On 8 March 1908 Spanker was on passage from Portsmouth to Sheerness where she was to join up with ships of the Nore Division of the Home Fleet for Naval exercises when her engines failed off Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.

[8] In November 1908, Spanker entered refit at Pembroke Dockyard,[9] with the ship requiring partial replating of her decks.

She was assigned to the North Sea Fisheries as a tender to Halcyon under the orders of the Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves.

Her fittings and gear, too, were rusty, and the ship looked a typical old veteran, which fact possibly gave her an added interest to the longshoremen, while the youngsters never missed an opportunity to roam around the vessel.

Now the Spanker has moved across to the other side of the harbour, alongside all that remains of a sister ship, and soon she, too, will be reduced to a mass of broken and twisted metal, which may, possibly, some day, help in building another vessel.