[2] The Admiralty only laid down a series of broad requirements for the destroyers, leaving detailed design to the ships' builders.

The requirements included a trial speed of 27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h), a "turtleback" forecastle and a standard armament of a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (3 in (76 mm) calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.

[9] 60 tons of coal were carried,[10] giving a range of 1,370 nautical miles (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph).

[15] In May 1902 she received the officers and men from the destroyer Stag, and was again commissioned at Chatham on 8 May by Lieutenant John Maxwell D. E. Warren for service with the Flotilla.

[16][17] She took part in the Spithead fleet review held on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII,[18] and later the same month was placed in dockyard hands at Sheerness for her boiler to be re-tubed.