They displaced 2,135 tons, had a crew complement of 224 men and were armed with eight QF 4 inch (102 mm) (25 pounder) guns, eight 3 pounder guns, three machine guns, and two 18 inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes. With reciprocating triple expansion engines and a variety of boilers, the top speed was 20kn.
HMS Pandora was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 3 January 1898,[1] and launched on 17 January 1900, when she was christened by Mrs. (Mary Elizabeth) Napier, daughter of Admiral Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth[2] (and herself wife of a Royal Navy officer who later became Vice-Admiral Sir Trevylyan Napier).
She was commissioned for the 1901 naval maneuvers, then carried out a series of propeller trials at Portsmouth under Commander Somerset Gough-Calthorpe, before she was paid off on 13 September 1901.[3] On 7 November 1901 she was commissioned by Commander John Francis Murray-Aynsley to relieve on the Mediterranean Station,[4] and she arrived at Malta early the following month.[5] In June 1902 she visited Cyprus,[6] and in September that year she was in the Aegean Sea visiting Nauplia.[7]
In 1906, her Commander was William Sullivan, second son of Admiral Sir Francis Sullivan, 6th Baronet.[8]
Pandora was sold for scrap in July 1913.