[2] As Italy's first destroyer,[2] Fulmine was an experimental ship with mediocre characteristics; while her armament was quite suitable, her hull had structural problems[3] which prevented her from achieving the maximum speed of 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph) envisaged for her.

Before 1910, the Italian physicist Domenico Pacini used Fulmine for a series of experiments to study the ionization of air.

[8] The incident also prompted the French Navy to send a force consisting of the battleship Henri IV and four torpedo boats from Bizerte to the southeastern border of Tunisia to stop contraband traffic between Tunisia and the Ottoman Empire and enforce France's obligations as a neutral country.

[8] On 10 April 1912 Fulmine, the armored cruisers Carlo Alberto and Marco Polo, the auxiliary cruisers Città di Catania and Città di Siracusa, and the torpedo boat Alcione bombarded Zuwarah, a smuggling center for war materials for Ottoman troops on the coast of Ottoman Tripolitania, which was followed by a fake amphibious landing simulated by the steamers Hercules, Sannio, and Toscana.

[11] By 1915, she was of antiquated design and limited military value, and she spent the war engaged primarily in escort duties and antisubmarine warfare.

World War I ended a week later with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918.