They had fairly mundane carers The Mersey-class cruisers were improved versions of the Leander class with more armour and no sailing rig on a smaller displacement.

The ships were powered by a pair of two-cylinder horizontal, direct-acting, compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which were designed to produce a total of 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) and a maximum speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers with forced draught.

The Mersey class carried enough coal to give them a range of 8,750 nautical miles (16,200 km; 10,070 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Their main armament consisted of two breech-loading (BL) 8-inch (203 mm) guns, one each fore and aft on pivot mounts.

Their secondary armament was ten BL 6-inch (152 mm) guns, five on each broadside in sponsons.