The ship was christened there by the Dutch Queen Mother, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont and was then commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy on 3 January 1902.

[2] On 11 March that year she departed from the port of Vlissingen bound for the Dutch West Indies in response to rising political tension between the Netherlands and Venezuela to evacuate the Jews of Coro to Curaçao.

[3] After this, the ship continued her journey in concert with HNLMS Utrecht and on 2 April 1902 they arrived in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira.

[4] 10 August 1909 the ship, together with HNLMS Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp and De Ruyter, departed from Batavia to China, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines to show the flag.

After leaving Surabaya on 15 August 1910, Koningin Regentes and both her sister ships, De Ruyter and HNLMS Hertog Hendrik, visited the ports of Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Fremantle and several others.