The Patria was ordered from the British shipbuilder Laird Brothers and built at their Birkenhead shipyard, at a price of £87,000 to replace the torpedo boat ARA Rosales , which had sunk at Cabo Polonio in 1892. The funds were raised by public subscription, headed by the newspapers La Nación and La Prensa.
Patria was of similar design to the contemporary Dryad-classtorpedo gunboats building for the British Royal Navy, but had a flush deck to improve seakeeping.[1] The ship was launched in 1893 and completed in 1894. In November of that year the vessel departed from England, arriving in Argentina the following month. It participated in the naval exercises held in 1895.
Bóveda, Jorge Rafael (2009). "Las maniobras Navales de 1902. La evolución de las tácticas de la Armada Argentina ante el conflicto con Chile, 1881-1902". Boletín del Centro naval (in Spanish) (Nº 824).
Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-133-5.