The two Yarrow-built ships were laid down in October 1931, and commissioned in 1933, while the first two Lisbon-built ships, "Tejo" and "Douro", laid down in 1932, were sold to the Colombian Navy before completion in response to the Leticia Incident between Columbia and Peru, and Peru's purchasing of two ex-Russian destroyers ( and "Villar") from Estonia. Renamed and , respectively, they served the Colombians as the . Two further ships were ordered by the Portuguese Navy to replace them.