On 27 September 1904, she participated in a naval review off Reval attended by Tsar Nicholas II, and departed for the Far East the following day.

Under the overall command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, Zhemchug was part of the Second Pacific Squadron intended to relieve the Japanese siege of Port Arthur.

However, she managed to escape sinking or capture after the Russian defeat, and together with the cruisers Aurora and Oleg, she reached the neutral port of Manila on 21 May 1905 and was interned by the United States on 25 May until the end of the war.

From 1905–1910, Zhemchug remained based at Vladivostok, but was in poor repair and could make only short patrols or occasional trips to Korean, Japanese or Chinese ports.

She was placed on reserve status in 1912, and was used as a guard ship at the foreign concessions at Shanghai and Yangzi River from 1913–1914, protecting Russian citizens and economic interests.

At the start of World War I, Zhemchug was part of the Allied (British-French-Japanese) joint task force pursuing the German East Asia Squadron under Admiral Maximilian von Spee, and operated in the Bay of Bengal together with the Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Chikuma.

The German light cruiser Emden was disguised as a British warship and pulled alongside Zhemchug at a distance of 300 yards (270 m).

At that range, Emden raised the Imperial German naval flag, launched a torpedo, and opened fire with her 10.5 cm guns.

To their credit, Zhemchug's crew managed to load and return fire with the front guns, but missed the German raider and struck a merchant ship in the harbor instead.

Emden turned around and fired a second torpedo that struck the burning Zhemchug at the conning tower, causing a tremendous explosion that tore the ship apart.

The sentences were later commuted to 18 months by Tsar Nicholas II as sending to the front as ordinary seamen, where both men later distinguished themselves in combat and were decorated with the Cross of St.