The Camäleon-class gunboats came about as a result of a program to strengthen the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Reichsflotte and in the midst of rising tensions with Denmark.

In 1859, Prince Regent Wilhelm approved a construction program for some fifty-two gunboats to be built over the next fifteen years, of which eight became the Camäleon class.

[4][5] She was launched exactly one year later on 1 September 1860,[6] and entered service in mid-1861 for sea trials, which were conducted in the course of visits to the three remaining Hanseatic cities, Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, in company with the corvette Amazone.

[5] The flotilla was deployed on 17 March to support Captain Eduard von Jachmann's corvettes at the Battle of Jasmund, but the gunboats were only lightly engaged.

With the Prussian victory in October, Comet took part in a naval review held for King Wilhelm I, followed by a tour of ports in Holstein with now Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Jachmann.

[6] She was not mobilized during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and instead next saw active service in 1868 in what was now the navy of the North German Confederation, being reactivated on 21 April for fishery protection duty.

At the time, British fishermen routinely fished in German territorial waters in the North Sea illegally, and Comet was sent there to prevent these activities.

She was decommissioned on 29 April 1871, at which point an investigation of her hull revealed the necessity of a major overhaul, which was done at the Königliche Werft in Danzig.

In December, Comet was sent into the Baltic to search for vessels that had been wrecked in a severe storm, and if necessary, sink them to prevent them from becoming navigational hazards.

She returned to Kiel without having located any wrecks on 31 December, in advance of the heavy sea ice that occurred in the Baltic every winter.

Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, the chief of the German admiralty, did not consider Comet to have sufficiently performed her duties, and so he relieved her captain of his command.

The German and French consuls in Salonika during a wave of anti-European sentiment in the Ottoman Empire, prompting Germany to reinforce its squadron in the Mediterranean.

In late July, she steamed to Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, where she relieved the gunboat Nautilus so the latter vessel could be sent to Asian waters.

[11] Following the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War in April 1877, Comet, Meteor, and Pommerania were concentrated in Constantinople for fear of resumed anti-European riots.