The Giliyak was laid down at the New Admiralty, St. Petersburg, in 1896, and launched the following year. Her dimensions were: - Length, 200ft; beam, 37ft. nearly. The maximum draught is about 9ft. 6 inches. Displacement was usually given as 963 tons; but was actually about 1300 tons. Her armament consisted of one 4.7in. quick-firer of 40 calibres on the forecastle and five 3in. quick-firers of 50 calibres each. Four of these were carried on the main deck behind fairly thick but very low shields inside covered-in sponsons. The rest of the armament consisted of four 3-pounder Hotchkiss quick-firers; two field guns for landings, a couple of short Baranovski 2.5 inch pieces on the fore bridge, and two Maxims in the fighting top.