The Thornycroft type[1] or Shakespeare-class[2][3] leaders, were like the similar and contemporary Admiralty type (also known as the Scott class)[4][5] were designed to meet a requirement from Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, for a large, fast and heavily armed flotilla leader to match and outclass rumoured large German destroyers.

[7][a] The ship's machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers that fed steam at 250 pounds per square inch (1,700 kPa) to two sets of Brown-Curtis single-reduction geared-steam turbines, rated at 40,000 shaft horsepower (30,000 kW).

[10] Up to 500 tons of oil fuel could be carried, giving a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[5] Shakespeare's anti-aircraft armament consisted of a single 3 in (76 mm) gun on a platform abaft the rear funnel.

The force would tow six Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) to the edge of the mined areas in the inner German Bight.

Meanwhile, the Harwich Force, waiting for the CMBs to return, encountered the German airship L53, and a Camel took off from a lighter towed behind the destroyer Redoubt and shot down L53.

[17][18] On 15 August 1918, Spenser picked up survivors from the leader Scott and Ulleswater, which had been torpedoed by a German submarine off the Dutch coast.

[14][23] On the night of 17/18 August, the 2nd Flotilla, including Spenser escorted seven CMBs ona raid on the Red Fleet anchorage at Kronstadt.

[25] On 27 October, Spenser together with the monitor Erebus, the cruisers Delhi and Dunedin, the leaders Mackay and Shakespeare and four destroyers took part in a bombardment of the Bolshevik-held Krasnaya Gorka fort, in support of an Estonian offensive against Petrograd, as the fort was a key part of the defences for the cite.

In fact, however, the resources (both manpower and financial) allocated to the uptake of reserve destroyers was inadequate, and their condition deteriorated, so that most of them never returned to active service.