Hawthorn Leslie and Company
She was laid down on 7 September 1896, at the R.W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company shipyard at Hebburn-on-Tyne, and launched on 14 July 1897. During her builder's trials, she made her contract speed of . She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in February 1900, and passed into the Medway Fleet Reserve at Chatham.