"Chesma" was named after the Russian victory at the Battle of Chesma in 1770. She was built by the Russian Steam Navigation Company (RoPIT) at Sevastopol. She was laid down in late June 1883, launched on 18 May 1886, and completed on 29 May 1889. She served with the Black Sea Fleet until 1907. She was inactive in 1895, probably for mechanical problems. "Chesma" conducted trials in 1902 with towing spherical observation balloons and she was re-boilered the following year. Plans were made for a radical reconstruction to be done while her boilers were being replaced. The rebuilding involved cutting her down by one deck and replacing her armament with two twin-gun turrets equipped with 12-inch 40-caliber guns and ten 6-inch 45-caliber guns between the turrets in an armoured citadel that used Krupp armor. This proved to be too expensive and it was cancelled, but not before the armor and turrets had been ordered. Her turrets were used to equip the pre-dreadnought , then under construction.