[3] Spetsai was ordered from the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in Le Havre, France, during the premiership of Charilaos Trikoupis.

The ship, named for the island of Spetsai, was launched on 26 October 1889, and by 1892, she and her sister-ships Hydra and Psara were delivered to the Greek fleet.

The Ottoman Navy had remained in port during the conflict, but a major naval intervention of the Great Powers prevented the Greeks from capitalizing on their superiority.

[10] Two months later, the Ottoman fleet attacked the Greek navy, in an attempt to disrupt the naval blockade surrounding the Dardanelles.

The Greek flotilla, which included the armored cruiser Georgios Averof and Spetsai and her sisters, had been sailing from the island of Imbros to the patrol line outside the straits.

When the Ottomans were sighted, the Greeks altered course to the northeast in order to block the advance of their opponents.

At 10:04, the Ottoman ships completed a 16-point turn, which reversed their course, and steamed for the safety of the straits in a disorganized withdrawal.

[11] The Naval Battle of Lemnos resulted from an Ottoman plan to lure the faster Georgios Averof away from the Dardanelles.

Spetsai and her sisters were too slow to keep up with Georgios Averof, and played no active part in the engagement.

[12] At the outbreak of World War I at the end of July 1914, Greece's pro-German monarch, Constantine I, decided to remain neutral.