Launched by Thornycroft on 15 July 1918, the vessel followed a design typical of the yard by being faster than the majority of the class, and also had better seakeeping properties thanks to a raised forecastle.

Despite the relative youth of the vessel, the damage was deemed irrepairable and so Tobago returned to Malta and was sold for scrap on 9 February 1922.

Tobago was one of two S-class destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty from Thornycroft in April 1917 as part of the Eleventh War Construction Programme alongside Speedy.

[3] In a similar way to previous designs, Thornycroft also installed more powerful machinery to give the warship a higher top speed.

Three Yarrow boilers fed steam to two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines rated at 29,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW) and driving two shafts, giving a design speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) in light load and 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) at full load.

A total of 250 long tons (250 t) of fuel oil were carried, giving a design range of 3,450 nautical miles (6,390 km; 3,970 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).