The contracts for the construction of forty-eight "fast destroyers" for the British Government were distributed between the following shipbuilders: Messrs. Laird Brothers, Birkenhead; Messrs. J. I. Thornycroft, Chiswick; Messrs. Palmer and Company, Jarrow-on-Tyne; Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, Clydebank; Messrs. Doxford and Sons, Sunderland; The Naval Armaments Company, Barrow-in-Furness; The Fairfield Shipbuilding Company, Govan, Messrs. Hawthorn, Leslie, and Company, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Earl's Shipbuilding Company, Hull. Accession No.452. 'Boilers of torpedo boat destroyers.' The Engineer, vol. 81, 19 June 1896, p. 616. When the Sturgeon, her sister ships, the Starfish and Skate, and some others of the same type were ordered the boilers were in accordance with Admiralty instructions fitted with copper tubes. Some isolated cases of failure of these copper tubes during trials, caused the Admiralty officials to replace, as the opportunity arose to relace all the copper tubes in such boilers with steel tubes.