Heibetnuma was an unprotected cruiser

Unprotected cruiser

An unprotected cruiser was a type of naval warship in use during the late Victorian or pre-dreadnought era . The name was meant to distinguish these ships from “protected cruisers” which had become accepted in the 1880s...

with a composite hull of the Ottoman Navy

Ottoman Navy

The Ottoman Navy was established in the early 14th century. During its long existence it was involved in many conflicts; refer to list of Ottoman sieges and landings and list of Admirals in the Ottoman Empire for a brief chronology.- Pre-Ottoman:...

, laid down in 1881 at the Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 dockyard and completed in 1893. The ship had six rectangular boilers and carried about 280 tons of coal. The main armament was three Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 6.7in/25 caliber 5.6 ton breechloading guns, mounted fore and aft. The secondary guns were six Krupp 4.7in/25 BL guns in sponsons amidships.

This ship and the slightly smaller cruiser Lutfi Humayun were similar in armament and performance to the Miaoulis

Greek cruiser Navarhos Miaoulis

Navarchos Miaoulis was a 1,820 ton Greek masted cruiser named for the admiral Andreas Miaoulis, the leader of the Greek rebels' fleet during the Greek War of Independence ....

, an unprotected cruiser launched in 1879 for the navy of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

's main naval rival, Greece. The Russian Black Sea Fleet, another threat to the Ottoman navy, included the slightly larger unprotected cruiser Pamiat Merkuria

Russian cruiser Pamiat Merkuria (1878)

The Pamiat' Merkuria was an unarmored cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was initially named Yaroslavl , but was renamed on 9 April 1883. She was a barque-rigged steel and iron ship with a ram bow. She had two unprotected guns as bow and stern chasers and the other four in unprotected...

.