"Melampus" was not listed as part of any unit for the rest of 1915 after commissioning. In January 1916, "Melampus" was listed as part of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla of the Harwich Force, but by March that year was attached to the 8th Submarine Flotilla, also part of the Harwich Force. On 24 April 1916, the Germans mounted a major operation in the North Sea, where the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group would bombard the coastal towns of Lowestoft and Yarmouth, in order to provoke a response by the Harwich force or the British battlecruisers based at Rosyth, which would be dealt with by the German battlecruisers and the supporting battleships of the High Seas Fleet. On the afternoon of 24 April, the battlecruiser struck a mine, and on detecting and deciphering German radio signals referring to the mining, the British Admiralty ordered six submarines accompanied by "Melampus" to intercept the German forces. Later that night, the destroyers and cruisers of the Harwich Force were ordered out, to find the German force, and to induce the Germans to chase the British force into the path of the waiting British submarines. After the Germans bombarded Lowestoft and Yarmouth, "Melampus" received orders to her submarines to deploy in a patrol line to have the best change of intercepting the German ships on their return journey. "Melampus" sighted German ships when relaying the new orders to her submarines, and after completing passing on the orders, withdrew at high speed from the German ships. None of the British submarines managed to get close enough to the German ships to engage the Germans. One of the British submarines, , was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine .