The Pará-class monitors were designed to meet the need of the Brazilian Navy for small, shallow-draft armored ships capable of withstanding heavy fire.

The monitor configuration was chosen as a turreted design did not have the same problems engaging enemy ships and fortifications as did the central battery ironclads already in Brazilian service.

[2] With only 0.3 meters (1 ft 0 in) of freeboard they had to be towed between Rio de Janeiro and their area of operations.

The engines produced a total of 180 indicated horsepower (130 kW) which gave the monitors a maximum speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) in calm waters.

[3] Santa Catharina had a single 120-pounder Whitworth rifled muzzle loader (RML) in her gun turret.

[5] Most unusually the guns' Brazilian-designed iron carriage was designed to pivot vertically at the muzzle; this was done to minimize the size of the gunport through which splinters and shells could enter.

[7] Santa Catharina, together with her sister ships Ceará and Piauí, broke through the Paraguayan defenses at Guaraio on 29 April 1869 and drove off the defenders.

While docked for repairs in 1882, Santa Catharina sank at her moorings due to the poor condition of her hull.