The torpedo destroyer Spitfire (length 200 feet, beam 19 feet, draught 7 feet 9 inches; displacement 320 tons) was launched at the Elswick Shipyard, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 7th of June 1895. The design speed of the Spitfire was twenty-seven knots and she was to be armed with one 12-pounder, and five six-pounder quick-firing guns, and two torpedo tubes.