[3][4][5] As built, she was equipped with a circular saw that could be mounted on her bow almost at the waterline, allowing her to extricate herself from the roots of mangroves along rivers such as the Amazon, as well as to break through barriers of logs carried by the current.

Sebastiano Caboto′s propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines powered by two coal-burning low-pressure cylindrical boilers operating at 12.6 kilograms per square centimeter (179.21 psi).

[3] At an economical cruising speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) and with the maximum amount of coal she could bring aboard (100 or 190[6] tons, according to different sources) the ship could travel 3,600 nautical miles (6,670 km; 4,140 mi), enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

After leaving Naples she called at Port Said, Massawa, Rakmat, Aden, Karachi, Bombay, Colombo, Singapore, and Saigon before arriving in March 1914 in Hong Kong, where she met the armored cruiser Marco Polo, which was about to return to Italy.

Departing Hong Kong on 29 March 1914, Sebastiano Caboto made stops at Canton (now Guangzhou) and Macau before arriving at Shanghai on 2 April 1914.

[2][1][3][4][8][9] As soon as a reorganization, which lasted for almost a month after her arrival, was complete, Sebastiano Caboto began operations, departing Shanghai on 28 April 1914 and steaming up the rivers to the limit of their navigability, in particular up the Yangtze.

[11] After Italy entered World War I on the side of the Allies in May 1915, the Republic of China remained neutral and Sebastiano Caboto risked internment by Chinese authorities, but she avoided this by ignoring Chinese demands that she submit to internment, cutting her moorings, and quickly departing for Nagasaki, Japan, where she remained for 18 months.

[12] When China also entered the war on the side of the Allies in December 1917, Sebastiano Caboto returned to her patrol duties on Chinese rivers.

In 1921 a second Regia Marina gunboat, the smaller Ermanno Carlotto, whose construction had been interrupted by World War I, joined Sebastiano Caboto in China.

[13][14] On 6 April 1924, Lieutenant Commander Angelo Iachino, a future admiral, assumed command of Ermanno Carlotto and, noting the worsening of internal conflicts in China, expressed hope for the sending of an expeditionary force that could carry out international police duties: As a result, the Naval Division was established in East Asia.

[2][1][4] During these years, Sebastiano Caboto and Ermanno Carloto had the task of protecting Italian missions in China, which, as had occurred prior to World War I, often came under threat of looting by river pirates and the forces of Chinese warlords.

[1] Sebastiano Caboto often visited Chinese "treaty ports" and steamed up the Yangtze to Hankow, remaining mainly in the lower reaches of the river because of her draft.

[10] During the second half of the 1920s and the early 1930s, the destroyer Muggia alternated on duties in China, joining Sebastiano Caboto, Ermanno Carloto, and Libia in forming the Italian naval squadron there.

[1] In March 1925 the Far East Naval Command included Libia, Sebastiano Caboto, Ermanno Carlotto, and San Giorgio.

The modern minelayer Lepanto arrived in China to replace her,[1] and on 7 August 1934 Sebastiano Caboto left the mouth of the Yangtze to return to Italy.

At the time, Sebastiano Caboto was part of the Auxiliary Ships Group of the Aegean Sea Naval Command, based at Rhodes.

[17] The Kingdom of Italy proclaimed an armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943, and Nazi Germany immediately began the Dodecanese campaign to seize control of the Italian islands in the Aegean, including Rhodes.

[18] The ship was in no condition to either participate in the Battle of Rhodes or flee the island, so Corradini disembarked weapons and supplies to reinforce the Italian defenses ashore.