During the Armada Revolt, in 1893, it was seized by the rebels who ran it aground near the Ilha das Enxadas, Rio de Janeiro, and remained there until it was hit by a naval mine, which destroyed it, in 1897.

It had a triple expansion engine[4] built by the American company Benjamin Hick & Son, with 350 HP, which moved the two side wheels and propelled the vessel to about 11 miles per hour.

[5] In the ship's bow, a figure of an amazon was carved, in the form of an amerindian woman who held a canoe oar in her right hand, a quiver on her shoulder and an adornment of feathers on her legs.

Under his command, the warship returned to Bahia on the 15th of October, and on this voyage collided with the brig Sarah, which sank, resulting in damage to the upper end of Amazonas' bow.

The mission was secret, but Paraguay had a large network of agents spread across Rio de Janeiro, São Borja and Encarnación who delivered news about imperial actions to Asunción.

[9] When the imperial ships reached the border at Três Bocas,[6] they encountered a Paraguayan force under the command of captain Pedro Ignacio Meza.

During the journey, the Amazonas ran aground and had to be towed back by Paraguayan ships, and Oliveira had to sail to Assunción aboard the corvette Ipiranga, which docked on 24 March 1855.

On 28 May 1857, a group of its crew watched, aboard the brig Fidelidade, the execution by firing squad of a sailor who had murdered the guardian of the corvette Recife.

[11] On 1 October 1859, emperor Pedro II, accompanied by empress Teresa Cristina and a small entourage, undertook a trip to the northern provinces of Brazil.

This trip was necessary for the Brazilian monarchy to strengthen itself among the population, and it was also a way of preserving national unity by providing the reconstruction of political alliances, including with opponents of the emperor.

The departure from Vitória back to the court in Rio de Janeiro took place early in the morning of the next day, under the same escort – Apa, Amazonas, Paraense and Pirajá – heading towards the port of Guarapari.

Its commanders then decided, after their stay in the city, to freely ascend the waters of the Amazon river towards Peru without giving any notice to the Brazilian authorities.

The president of the province of Pará tried to convince them that the convention only referred to merchant ships of both countries, duly registered and that it stipulated nothing about warships, even if loaded with goods (as was the case).

[17] Informed of these events, the imperial government sent a naval division under the command of chief of squadron Guilherme Parker to Pará in order to assure the territorial sovereignty of the Empire from the offenses that had been inflicted on it.

Before that, just when he arrived in Pará, Parker was informed that the steamer Pastaza had left for Cayenne, and that the Morona had been rescued by the authorities of the Province of Amazonas, who prevented her from sinking after she ran aground.

[12] The goal of this mission, under the responsibility of minister José Antônio Saraiva, was to force the Uruguayan government to pay reparations to Brazilians who were being mistreated in the country:[20] "[To defend the] life, honour and property of a large number of Brazilian citizens residing in the Oriental Republic, which were being and are being vilified for acts that constituted a ghastly picture of atrocious and barbaric crimes, so repeatedly committed there since 1851, not to go back to more distant times".Besides the Amazonas , the fleet consisted of the corvettes Belmonte, Beberibe, Jequitinhonha, Niterói and Parnaíba; by the gunboats Mearim, Araguaia, Ivaí, Itajaí and Maracanã and by the steamer Recife.

[30][31] On 27 April 1865, in the midst of the Paraguayan War, the Brazilian naval force, based in Montevideo, constituted by the Amazonas, which took on board the 9th Infantry Brigade of lieutenant colonel José da Silva Guimarães, the Paraíba and Ivaí, was authorized to depart for Buenos Aires, after operations with naval and land forces against Paraguay had been authorized by the 2nd Viscount of Caramuru, Minister of War, and at the request of admiral Joaquim Marques Lisboa.

On the 28th, already in the Argentine capital, Amazonas left for the Paraná River in order to join the 3rd Division of the Imperial Fleet, under the command of Sea and War Captain José Segundino de Gomensoro, made up of the corvettes Jequitinhonha, which was flying its ensign, Beberibe and Belmonte, and the gunboats Araguari, Iguatemi, Ipiranga, Itajaí, Mearim and the transport ship Peperiguaçu.

[32] On the 24th of May, the fleet departed from Bella Vista and headed for Rincón de Soto, an anchorage near the city of Goya, where Brazilian admiral Manuel Barroso and the Argentine general Venceslau Paunero discussed the operation to retake Corrientes, which had been invaded by the Paraguayans since April 14.

This attack demonstrated to the Paraguayans the vulnerability of their flank to the projection of Brazilian naval power against their army column, which was advancing through Argentina towards southern Brazil.

The Paraguayan fleet was under the command of frigate captain Pedro Ignacio Meza and consisted of the steamers Tacuary, Paraguary, Igurey, Jejuy, Ypora, Salto Oriental, Río Blanco, Pirabebe, the steamer Marquês de Olinda, a Brazilian vessel that had been captured by the Paraguayans on 12 November 1864, and six more artillery barges, called chatas, with a total of 47 cannons of varied calibers and 2,500 soldiers on board.

Captain Meza's orders were to go down the Paraná River, bordering the coast of Corrientes, at dawn on June 11, and park the six barges on the banks of the Riachuelo; then, at daybreak, the fleet of steamers should look for the Brazilian ships to quickly board and capture them.

If they were not successful, their duty was to return fighting down the river and rely on Riachuelo's batteries and on the artillery of the barges, attracting the Brazilians to the fire from these hidden positions.

Once on board the Amazonas, Barroso gave his famous signal: "Brazil expects each one to do their duty", after which the advance began with the Beberibe, Mearim, Araguari and the other ships.

[38] The Paraguayan steamer Marquês de Olinda also approached the Paranaíba, with hundreds of boarding men armed with sabers, hatchets and pistols.

Admiral Barroso saw the need to reorganize his forces and so he took over the leadership of the imperial ships aboard the Amazonas,[40] where he signaled: “sustain the fire that victory is ours”, to strengthen the spirits of his crew.

[44][45] Two days after the naval battle of Riachuelo, the Brazilian fleet descended the Paraná River to the Cabral island in order to count the dead and wounded, carry out the necessary repairs and resupply with coal and ammunition.

[46] This last battle led Solano López to order ballistic tests with his cannons to verify that his artillery was capable to pierce the armor of the Brazilian vessels.

The Argentine vessel Guardia Nacional, perhaps in an attempt to prove its worth to the imperial ships, deliberately reduced its speed to spend more time fighting the enemies, and received most of the projectiles.

On March 14, Decree nº 4.117 of the executive power, determined that the Southern Cross ribbon be hoisted on the bow mast of the Amazonas frigate and of some other battleships, and in the center of the helm wheel the officer decoration of the same order.