Promoted to lieutenant on 27 July 1884, Madden transferred to the troopship in November 1884 and then attended the torpedo school before joining the directing staff there in 1885. He became torpedo officer in the frigate on the Cape of Good Hope Station in March 1888 and then in the battleship , flagship of the Channel Squadron in 1892 before rejoining the staff of HMS "Vernon" in 1893. Promoted to commander on 30 June 1896, he was posted to the cruiser in the Mediterranean Fleet and then the battleship also in the Mediterranean Fleet before returning to HMS "Vernon" again in 1899. Promoted to captain on 30 June 1901, he was in February 1902 appointed to , flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, as an additional officer for duty with torpedo boat destroyers in the Mediterranean. From April 1902, this included command of the ironclad , depot-ship at Malta for torpedo boats. In September that year, he was posted to the armoured cruiser , and was the first captain to commission her as she was completed in November that year. Her first assignment was to convey Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on his tour of South Africa from December 1902 to March 1903. She then served as flagship of Admiral Wilmot Fawkes, commanding the cruiser squadron on the North America and West Indies Station, to whom Madden thus served as flag captain. Appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order on 11 August 1903, he joined the Ship Design Committee, which produced the and designs for battleships and armoured battlecruisers, in December 1904 and then became naval assistant to Admiral Henry Jackson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in February 1905. He became Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord in December 1905 and was advanced to Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 3 August 1907.