On 2 February 1900 she was commissioned as tender to HMS "Vivid", shore establishment at Devonport, for service in the Devonport Instructional flotilla, and Lieutenant Stephen Herbert Radcliffe was appointed in command. A mere week into her commission, she had her stem damaged while in the Falmouth harbour when the destroyer dragged her moorings and drifted into "Locust" and other ships of the flotilla. Following repairs in Devonport, she was back in the flotilla the following month. She took part in the 1901 Naval Manoeuvres. On 5 December 1901 she was recommissioned as tender to the battleship on the Mediterranean station. She left Devonport for Malta in January the following year. Lieutenant the Hon. Arthur Brandreth Scott Dutton was appointed in command in April 1902, and in August that year she visited Lemnos.