The ship was launched on July 6, 1916 at an English shipyard from the stack and was put into service the 1,917th It was 81.5 m long and 10.5 m wide, had a draft of 4.2 m and displaced a maximum of 1470 tons . The machinery consisted of two boilers and a triple expansion steam engine with 2800 HP . The maximum speed was 17.5 knots . The armament consisted of two 13.9 cm L / 45 cannons, two 75 mm L / 35 cannons as well as two depth charges and a depth charge drainage frame at the rear. The crew numbered 103 men.
The Altair initially served in the Mediterranean , was reclassified to Aviso First Class after the First World War and served in French Indochina until 1938 . She was decommissioned on March 8, 1939 as the last ship in her class and was scrapped in 1940.