On 2 February 1900, she was commissioned as tender to HMS Vivid, shore establishment at Devonport, for service in the Devonport Instructional flotilla, A mere week into her commission, Fairy dragged her moorings while in the Falmouth harbour, and had her bow on the starboard side and her stem badly damaged as she drifted into other ships of the flotilla. Following repairs in Devonport, she was back in the flotilla later that Spring. She underwent repairs to re-tube her boilers in May 1902. Fairy was refitted in 1908, having her boilers retubed.
