 She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine driving a single screw, produced by Hawthorn Leslie.She was rigged with three masts, with square rig on the fore- and main-masts, making her a barque-rigged vessel.Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 15 January 1883 and she was launched on 14 November 1883.