Nymphe was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 14 officers and 176 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove a two-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . Nymphe was equipped with a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine.
