On 8 November 1893, the British Admiralty placed an order with the Naval Construction and Armament Company of Barrow-in-Furness (later to become part of Vickers) for three "Twenty-Seven Knotter" destroyers as part of the 1893–1894 construction programme for the Royal Navy,[1] with in total, 36 destroyers being ordered from various shipbuilders for this programme.[2]
The Admiralty only laid down a series of broad requirements for the destroyers, leaving detailed design to the ships' builders. The requirements included a trial speed of 27kn, a "turtleback" forecastle and a standard armament of a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (3inches calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[3] [4] [5]
The Naval Construction and Armament Company produced a design with a length of 194feet overall and 190feet between perpendiculars, with a beam of 19feet and a draught of 7feet. Displacement was 300LT light and deep load.[1] Three funnels were fitted, with the foremast between the ship's bridge and the first funnel.[6] [7] Four Blechyndnen water-tube boilers fed steam at to two three-cylinder triple expansion steam engines rated at .[1] [8] A speed of was reached during sea trials.[9] 60 tons of coal were carried,[10] giving a range of 1370nmi at a speed of .[11] The ship's crew was 53 officers and men.[11]
Sturgeon served in home waters for the whole of her career.[1] She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 26 June 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[12] From 1899 she served in the Medway Instructional Flotilla under Commander Murray MacGregor Lockhart, but in March 1900 she was replaced by HMS Cynthia to which Commander Lockhart also transferred.[13] She left this for other service in late 1900. The following year she again took up with the Medway instructional flotilla, replacing .[14] She had a refit in early 1902.[15] In May 1902 she received the officers and men from the destroyer, and was again commissioned at Chatham on 8 May by Lieutenant John Maxwell D. E. Warren for service with the Flotilla.[16] [17] She took part in the Spithead fleet review held on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII,[18] and later the same month was placed in dockyard hands at Sheerness for her boiler to be re-tubed.[19]