There were a total of seven ships of this class made by the authorization of the Royal Navy.

Six more vessels were then brought into the Jason class and ordered by the Royal Navy to be made in 1860.

All of these ships were referred to as "Troop Frigates"; all of them were ship-rigged with telescopic funnels.

The Armstrong breech-loading guns that were on the ships were removed in 1864 following a string of catastrophic accidents.

Wolverine and Barrosa had 17 × 64 pdrs; while Rattlesnake had a fair 9 × 64-pdrs (8 × 8 in shells) which of course was pivot mounted.