The locomotive boilers of H.M.S. Spanker were being removed and replaced with Du Temple water-tube boilers. These had been adopted in several French vessels, but the Royal Navy had had little experience with them. The arrangement of the tubes differed from most other tubulous boilers, and the results of the experiment were being awaited with considerable interest. The Du Temple boiler had been fitted in the French torpedo boat Chevalier (length 144.3 feet, beam 15.7 feet, draught 6 feet 8 inches; displacement 118 tons), which had achieved a trial speed of 27.22 knots.