She was built at Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan and launched on 21 October 1896. She served in the Channel Squadron. In March 1901 she was one of two cruisers to escort HMS Ophir, commissioned as royal yacht for the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George and Queen Mary), from Spithead to Gibraltar, and in September the same year she again escorted the royal yacht from St Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia.