With the advent of the destroyer the Admiralty had ceased to place orders for torpedo boats, but they later re-adopted them in 1901, when they placed an order for the first of four 25-knot torpedo boats with John I. Thornycroft and Company, Chiswick. Torpedo boat No. 98 (Length 164 feet overall, 160 feet between perpendiculars, beam 17 feet, draught 5 feet 10 inches; displacement 185 tons) was to be the most powerful torpedo boat in the world at the time.