H.M.S. 'Sturgeon' was one of the 'A' class 27-knotters ordered soon after the genesis of the destroyer in the early 1890's. The Admiralty took the decision to build thirty-six vessels and, as usual, placed the orders with various yards around the country. What was unuaual however was the considerablr leeway given to the builders with regard to their final designs and there were marked differences between the ships themselves as they were completed for service.

The order for 'Sturgeon' went to Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and she was the first of the class to be launched on 21 July 1894. Displacing 265 tons, she measured 190 feet in length with a 19 foot beam, and carried 1 x 12pdr., 5 x 6pdrs., and two 18in. torpedo tubes. Completed on time at a cost of £33,100, she achieved 27.16 knots on her trials and her builders declared themselves well satisfied with her overall performance although her officers and men found her terribly cramped, with living conditions primitive in the extreme. With technological improvements following rapidly, she found herself outdated and relegated to less glamorous duties quite early in her career. She was nevertheless a pioneer of her breed and even though scrapped in 1912, several of her sisters survived to serve with distiction in the Great War