In early 1875, the Dutch Navy in the home waters consisted of 4 ram turret ships, 10 monitors and 16 gunboats.

The contract for the preceding monitor Luipaard, ordered in July 1875, only called for a change to breech-loaders, not to an overall redesign.

The specific task of Draak was the defense of the Texel roadstead and the Zuiderzee.

The machinery for Draak was made by the Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen in Amsterdam.

They had diagonally placed cylinders that could make 120 moves per minute by 65 English pounds of steam pressure in the boilers.

On 28 June 1879 Draak left the port of IJmuiden and reached Texel.