Swordfish and Spitfire were both built by Armstrong Whitworth at Elswick, Tyne and Wear launching in 1895.

Fitted with Yarrow boilers, they could make 27 knots and were armed with one twelve pounder and two torpedo tubes.

After ordering six prototype torpedo boat destroyers from the specialist torpedo boat yards Yarrows, Thornycroft and Laird as part of the 1892–1893 shipbuilding programme, the British Admiralty planned to buy larger numbers of destroyers under the 1893–1894 programme, with orders being spread over more shipyards.

[1][2] The Admiralty specified a number of broad requirement, leaving the detailed design of the ships and their machinery to the builders.

[5][8] Both ships had been sold for scrapping before 1913 when the Admiralty re-classed the surviving 27-knotter destroyers as the A Class.