The vessel was one of three from the so-called "White Division", on a mission to transport Brazilian president Campos Sales to Argentina in 1900.

Its name is a tribute to the Tamoio, a Brazilian indigenous tribe that dominated the regions of Cabo Frio and Ubatuba in the 16th century, and who left the Portuguese who lived there in constant alarm.

Its propulsion system consisted of two triple expansion steam reciprocating engines that generated 7,500 HP of power and propelled the vessel at up to 22 knots of speed.

In 1907, it was one of the Brazilian ships that appeared in the naval magazine International of Hampton Roads, in the United States, accompanying the battleship Riachuelo and the cruiser Almirante Barroso, in a Task Group under the command of admiral Duarte Huet de Bacelar Pinto Guedes.

Throughout 1913, Tamoio participated in several commissions, divisions and naval exercises with other vessels of the Brazilian Navy.