The Imperial Admiralty contracted William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build the ship, and her keel was laid in October 1898. Launched on October 31, 1899, under Captain Vladimir Behr, she was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy on January 2, 1901. In 1907, Vsevolod Rudnev (by that time dismissed from Russian naval service in the rank of rear admiral) was decorated with a Japanese order for that battle; although he accepted the order, he never wore it in public.