She was in Finland when that country declared its independence in 1918, but was returned to the Soviets after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.

The Russian Admiralty Board had previously licensed the design of the Passaic class from the United States and wished to compare the John Ericsson-designed gun turrets of those ships with the turrets designed by the British inventor Captain Cowper Coles.

Smerch rolled heavily and was fitted with three telescoping iron pole masts, probably fore-and-aft rigged, that were used to steady the ship rather than for propulsion.

[3] The ship had two simple horizontal direct-acting steam engines, built by Maudslay, Sons and Field of London.

Steam was provided by three rectangular fire-tube boilers at a pressure of 1.7 atm (172 kPa; 25 psi).

The engines produced a total of 800 indicated horsepower (600 kW) which gave Smerch a maximum speed of about 8.3 knots (15.4 km/h; 9.6 mph) when she ran her sea trials from 12 to 17 June 1865.

She carried 110 long tons (112 t) of coal which gave her a range of 600–800 nmi (1,100–1,500 km; 690–920 mi).

[5] Smerch was initially armed with four 60-pounder 7.72-inch (196 mm) smoothbore muzzle-loading guns, a pair in each turret.

A furnace for the molten iron required by Martin's incendiary shells was fitted between the turrets.

[8][9] Smerch (Waterspout)[10] was ordered on 25 June 1863 and construction began on 13 August at the Admiralty Shipyard, Saint Petersburg, although the formal keel-laying was not until 1 December.

Smerch struck an uncharted rock off the Finnish coast on 4 August in shallow water and sank.

[11] The ship was stricken from the Navy List on 20 February 1904 and turned over to the Port of Kronstadt for disposal.