Her coal-fired boilers were converted into oil-fired ones, and her original two short, squat funnels were replaced with three smaller, more streamlined ones, profoundly altering her appearance.

[5] On the afternoon of 29 September, however, she took part in one of the first clashes of the war, the Battle of Preveza, when she, along with the destroyers Alpino, Artigliere, and Carabiniere and the torpedo boat Spica engaged the Ottoman Navy torpedo boats Antalya and Tokad as they attempted to leave the port of Preveza on what then was the Ionian Sea coast of the Ottoman Empire.

The Italian ships attacked the two torpedo boats at 14:00, and Artigliere seriously damaged Tokad and pursued her into the anchorage as she attempted to return to Preveza.

Hit repeatedly, seriously damaged, and on fire, with four members of her crew killed in action and numerous other crewmen wounded, Antalya struck her colors and ran herself aground on a nearby beach.

[6][7][8][9][10] In a 1912 magazine article[11] and a 1913 book[12] based on contemporary sources, United States Navy Commodore W. H. Beehler offers a different version of the events of 29 September 1911.

Hit 15 times and on fire, Tokad beached herself near Nicopolis and was totally destroyed, with her commanding officer and eight of her sailors either killed by the Italian gunfire or drowned.

The bombardment killed 11 Austro-Hungarians, who either died in the shelling itself or drowned while trying to swim to safety, and 48 others, including the commanding officer, surrendered to Zeffiro, which brought them aboard and took them to Venice as prisoners-of-war.

[13][14][15] On 30 April 1916, Zeffiro got underway to lay a minefield in the Adriatic Sea off Šibenik (known to the Italians as Sebenico) on the coast of Austria-Hungary, but had to abort the mission and return to base after encountering the Austro-Hungarian hospital ships Anfitride and Tirol.

[13] Supported by Alpino, Fuciliere, and the coastal torpedo boats 40 PN and 46 OS, Zeffiro, under the command of Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Costanzo Ciano – brother of her previous commander – and with Lieutenant Nazario Sauro, an Italian irredentist, aboard as pilot, entered the port of Poreč on the western side of Istria, a peninsula on Austria-Hungary's coast, at dawn on 12 May 1916.

Her bridge was moved aft, one of her three funnels was removed,[3][4] and her engine power dropped to 3,400 horsepower (2,535 kW) and her maximum speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).