The Prussians had been in search of vessels to strengthen their fleet before and during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, but Augusta arrived too late to see action in the conflict.

In December 1867, she embarked on the first of three major overseas cruises under what was now the North German Federal Navy, with the secret objective of securing a naval base in Central America.

Objections from the United States over an attempt to lease the port of Puerto Limón, Costa Rica caused a minor diplomatic incident and led the Germans to abandon the idea.

The first cruise again went to Central American waters, but also saw a stint off the coast of Spain to protect German interests amidst unrest in the country during the Third Carlist War.

[2][3] The keel for Augusta had been laid down at the Arman Brothers shipyard in France in mid-1863 as part of a secret order from the Confederate States Navy; the ship was originally named Yeddo, supposedly for Japan.

On 20 July, Augusta joined the squadron sent by the Austrian Navy to fight the Danish fleet, though the ceasefire that ended the Second Schleswig War went into effect the following day.

In early 1865, the ship received her full crew and began a series of short training cruises in the Baltic Sea, and from 20 to 24 April, was present in Sonderburg for the one-year anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Dybbøl, which the Prussians had decisively won during the Second Schleswig War.

To protect the expanded scale of North German maritime commerce and overseas interests, the new Federal Navy began to examine plans to acquire foreign stations where warships could be based.

Initial plans called for bases in East Asia and Central America or the Caribbean, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was averse to provoking a conflict with the United States over its Monroe Doctrine, and so instructed the ship's captain, KK Franz Kinderling to avoid the appearance of having colonial designs on the region.

She stopped in Funchal, Madiera before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados and continuing on to visit the Venezuelan ports of Maracaibo and Caracas, Barranquilla, Colombia, and Colón, Panama.

The United States learned of the request and strongly criticized it, and to preserve good relations, Bismarck declared that Kinderling had exceeded his authority.

Kinderling and a group of officers then departed Puerto Limón and traveled overland to the Gulf of Nicoya on the Pacific coast of the country, before returning to Augusta on 15 May, which had since moved to Colón to avoid storms.

The ship visited Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, and Kinderling intended to continue the voyage north to several Mexican ports, but he was prevented from doing so.

The reason for the change of plans is unknown, but the historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz speculated that an outbreak of yellow fever or political pressure relating to the Puerto Limón incident may have been the cause.

Flying the flag of a merchant vessel, she crossed the North Sea to the Orkney Islands and proceeded to Bantry Bay, Ireland, on 21 December.

[9] On the night of 25 December, Augusta left Bantry Bay in search of merchant vessels carrying weapons from the United States to France.

On 2 January 1871, the ship's commander decided to move to the area off the Gironde estuary in the hopes of finding vessels carrying war materials.

[9][10] By this time, Augusta's coal stocks were running low, and the risk of encountering French warships grew as a result of her successes in the area.

The ship's commander inexplicably did not order coaling to begin until 12 January, which allowed French warships to arrive and blockade the harbor, the first of which was the ironclad Héroïne.

In the meantime, the prize Pierre Adolphe had evaded a French warship and reached the coast of Norway, but she ran aground there on 13 February.

[11][12] Augusta was slated to leave for another deployment to Central America on 18 December 1871, but the voyage was cancelled and on 26 January 1872, the ship was decommissioned for another overhaul.

After arriving in the cruising area, Augusta began a tour of South American ports, including a stop in Montevideo, Uruguay on 5 January 1875.

Augusta's stay on the station was short lived, and after her replacement, the corvette Leipzig arrived, she left Chinese waters on 5 July to return to Germany.

She was due in Albany, Australia on 17 June, but four weeks after she left Perim, Augusta had still not arrived which prompted an investigation into the disappearance of the ship and her 222-man crew.