In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the class members resemble their wooden sailing antecedents, but blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam cruisers which followed.

Despite their qualities they had relatively short commissions, as they soon were rendered superfluous by the "flood of warships" built under the Naval Defence Act of 1889.

To protect this trade and police its empire, Britain constructed many small and medium-sized cruisers, the latter typically armed with guns up to six inches in calibre.

Their ships therefore had a beamy hull to handle their sails, making them slower under steam than their French counterparts.

[4] The British vessels were similar in appearance and layout to the older wooden and composite-hulled small cruisers they were intended to replace,[5] albeit larger and more powerfully armed.

[7] In common with older wooden vessels, their hulls had copper sheathing over timber beneath the waterline, but that timber simply served to separate the iron hull from the copper sheathing so as to prevent electrolytic corrosion.

[9] In an early case of a single builder taking responsibility for building an entire class, contracts for these first six vessels were all awarded to the John Elder & Company at Govan on the Clyde.

[11] The masts were stayed by shrouds which were anchored to chainplates affixed to the inside of the gunwales, rather than the exterior as in wooden sailing ships.

The poop deck contained cabins for the captain, first lieutenant, and navigating officer, with the double wheel sheltered under its forward end.

The Comuses and Calypsos were sometimes called the "C class" of corvettes, an informal term rather than an official designation.