The first Russian experimental armoured ship was put into service on 22 June, 1861 was a gunboat. It was named “Opyt” (“Experience”) and entered the Baltic Fleet being manned by a guards company. The 1854-1856 Crimean War revealed the vulnerability of unarmored wooden-hulled ships to bomb-throwing guns and incendiary grenades and necessitated armor protection for the most vital parts of a ship.

The Admiralty proposed an armored gunboat. Carr & MacPherson of St. Petersburg in collaboration with Baltic Naval Yards designed and built the vessel. The OPYT was the first armored gunboat launched at the Baltic shipyard in September 1861. The gunboat had a displacement of 270 t, length of 38.9m between perpendiculars, beam of 6.78m and draught of 1.83 m. The hull was partitioned by 6.2 mm transverse bulkheads to five compartments. The steam engine, built by Thomson & Company, rated at about 200 bhp ensured a speed of up to 6 knots. The fore mounted a raised parapet fitted with a gun port for a 196mm smoothbore bomb-throwing gun. The parapet was attached to the bottom. The deck portion from the parapet to the fore represented a spherical slope for bomb deflection. The parapet was protected by 115-mm armor, imported from England, over the «slope», while below 65 mm armor placed on 305mm teak lining was mounted. The bomb room and ammunitions storeroom were located behind the parapet and protected on the sides by drinking water tanks.