HMS Pelorus was the first of the , and was laid down at Sheerness

Sheerness

Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....

 dockyard in 1896. Completed and commissioned into the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 on 15 December the same year, it was designed by Sir William White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

. Construction cost £154,315. The ship was well armed for its size, but was primarily a workhorse for the overseas fleet.

HMS Pelorus displaced 2,135 tons and had a top speed of 20 knots (39.2 km/h). It had reciprocating triple expansion engines

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 and Normand water-tube boilers which could give 7000 hp for limited periods of time with forced draught, and 5000 hp under natural draught. It carried a crew complement of 224 men and it was armed with eight QF 4 inch (102 mm) (25 pounder) guns

QF 4 inch naval gun Mk I - III

The QF 4-inch gun Mks I, II, III were early British QF naval guns originating in 1895. They all had barrels of 40 calibres length.-Naval service:The gun was intended to be a more powerful alternative to the 3-inch QF 12 pounder gun....

, eight QF 3 pounder (47-mm) guns

QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss

The QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss was a light 47-mm naval gun introduced in 1886 to defend against new small fast vessels such as torpedo boats, and later submarines...

, three machine guns, and two 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo

British 18 inch torpedo

There have been a number of 18 inch torpedoes in service with the United Kingdom. These have been used on ships of the Royal Navy and aircraft of both the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force...

tubes.

In 1906, the ship was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Station under the command of Commander James C. Tancred. In 1908 the captain was Arthur W Craig.