[1] When the ship was completed she proved to be very overweight which meant that much of her waterline armor belt was submerged.

[2] Russian companies could not produce the most advanced armour and machinery desired by the Naval General Staff, so they were imported from the United Kingdom and Belgium.

Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full-scale armour trials.

[1] Chesma had two 3-cylinder vertical compound steam engines imported from the Belgian Cockerill company.

At full load she carried 900 long tons (910 t) of coal that provided her a range of 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and 1,367 nautical miles (2,532 km; 1,573 mi) at 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph).

[4] This problem had been anticipated and water tanks had been added to counteract the list, but they proved to be virtually useless because they took up to two hours to fill.

Their rate of fire was reportedly one round every fifteen to seventeen minutes, including training time.

The eight 47-millimeter (1.9 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns were mounted in small embrasures in the hull to defend the ship against torpedo boats.

Chesma conducted trials in 1902 with towing spherical observation balloons and she was re-boilered the following year.

Chesma was fitted with a replica of the armour system used in the Gangut-class battleships to test its effectiveness.

[8] She was towed into position and given a 7° list to simulate the descent angle of shells fired at long range.

These revealed significant weaknesses in the support structure for the armour plates and in the deck protection, but the Gangut-class ships were too far along in construction to incorporate fixes.