Dmitrii Donskoi was assigned to the Second Pacific Squadron after the Japanese destroyed Russian ships deployed in the Far East during the early stages of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.

Dmitrii Donskoi had a pair of three-cylinder compound steam engines driving a single propeller shaft.

[2] Construction began on Dmitrii Donskoi on 22 September 1880,[Note 2] at the New Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg, and the keel-laying ceremony was held on 21 May 1881.

The ship arrived at Vladivostok on 20 July and accidentally grounded on 12 October whilst conducting torpedo practice.

Dmitrii Donskoi wintered in Japan that year and made port visits to Chefoo and Shanghai in February 1888.

[9] Dmitrii Donskoi began her second foreign cruise on 3 October 1891 when she sailed for the Mediterranean, visiting Brest, France en route.

She made port visits to Philadelphia, Boston and Newport, Rhode Island before she arrived back at Kronstadt in early September.

[2] Wilgelm Vitgeft was appointed as the ship's captain in late 1895 and Dmitrii Donskoi began her voyage to the Far East on 10 November.

When the Russo-Japanese War began in February 1904, the squadron was in the Red Sea and was recalled to the Baltic lest it be caught and destroyed en route by the Japanese.

[11] Dmitrii Donskoi was assigned to the cruiser force of the Second Pacific Squadron and departed Libau on 15 October 1904 bound for Vladivostok with Captain 1st Rank Lebedev in command.

En route in the North Sea, she was damaged by friendly fire from seven sister ships in mistake for a Japanese vessel during the Dogger Bank Incident of 21/22 October.

The survivors were taken prisoner that afternoon by landing parties from the destroyer Fubuki and the armed merchant cruiser Kasuga Maru.

[14] South Korea's Institute of Ocean Science and Technology claims to have discovered the wreck in 2003 and has photographs dating from 2007 on its website.

[17] The company, founded in June 2018, had not applied to South Korea's Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries for the salvage rights.

[18] South Korea's financial regulator warned the public against investing money in treasure hunting ventures.

[15] A representative of the Central Naval Museum in Saint Petersburg said there was no evidence to support the claim of gold in the Dmitrii Donskoi's wreck.

[19] On 26 July, the group changed its name to Shinil Marine Technology and publicly withdrew its claims about Dmitrii Donskoi, having raised an estimated US$53 million in funds.

[20] A South Korean court found the vice chairman of the group guilty of fraud and sentenced him to a five-year prison term, along with a key accomplice.