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.

Normally, new ships underwent sea trials upon completion, but budgetary shortages prevented the Prussian Navy from running a thorough examination of the vessel.

[4] Following the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War in February, Cyclop served as the flagship of the III Division, which helped to defend the Prussian coast from the superior Danish fleet.

After the war, Cyclop took part in a naval review held for King Wilhelm I,[4][5] followed by a tour of ports in Holstein with now Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Jachmann.

[7] On 14 January 1866, Cyclop was transferred to the coastal fortification at Friedrichsort outside Kiel, along with the gunboat Scorpion and several cannon-armed shallops; these units formed the II Company of the Naval Artillery Division.

On 15 June, Cyclop, Arminius and the gunboat Tiger covered the crossing of the Elbe river by General Edwin von Manteuffel and some 13,500 soldiers to attack the city of Hanover.

In mid-June, Cyclop and two tugboats towed a 40-metric-ton (39-long-ton) floating crane from the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin to the Königliche Werft in Kiel.

In early 1870, Cyclop helped pull the armored frigate Friedrich Carl free after she ran aground off the island of Langeland and towed her to Kiel for repairs.

The damage proved to be too extensive for the Königliche Werft to complete, and so Friedrich Carl had to be towed to Britain; Cyclop escorted the ship through the Skagerrak.

During the year, she assisted in the transfer of a new floating dry dock from Swinemünde to Kiel in company with the ironclad Kronprinz and the paddle steamer Preussischer Adler.

Repeated, negative experiences with Danish pilots led the Imperial Navy to send Cyclop to assist with navigation off Langeland.

The schooner Anna had been seized and run aground by a group of Chinese pirates at Fuzhou, who had murdered the ship's captain and helmsman.

[16] In February 1876, Cyclop sailed to Taiping Island in the South China Sea; she carried a memorial that was sent to commemorate the assistance given to the crew of the schooner F.S.

Cyclop remained on station in East Asia through 1880, and during this period, she cruised throughout the region, visiting major ports as far north as Siberia and conducting hydrographic and topographical surveys.

On 1 January 1881, Cyclop began the voyage back to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 28 April, where she was laid up for an overhaul at the Kaiserliche Werft there.

While in Wilhelmshaven, she received orders on 7 August for a cruise to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where she would join Germany's response to the ʻUrabi revolt in Egypt, which also included the screw corvettes Nymphe and Gneisenau, the aviso Zieten, and the gunboats Möwe and Habicht.

In June 1882, the revolutionaries, led by Ahmed ‘Urabi and angered by foreign influence in the country, murdered fifty Europeans, prompting the British Royal Navy to bombard Alexandria and then land forces to pursue the rebels.

[18] The admiralty had intended for Cyclop to remain in service for fishery protection duties in 1885, but by that time, small warships were needed to enforce the German colony in Kamerun, which had recently been seized.

At around the same time, the only major warship on the station, the screw corvette Bismarck, left for German East Africa, leaving Cyclop in company with just Habicht.

The ship returned to Duala to be present for the ceremonial beginning construction of the colonial government building with the first imperial governor, Julius von Soden.

By that time, the ship's propulsion system was badly worn out, and she was capable of steaming at just 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph); given her age, it was decided that an overhaul of her machinery would be cost prohibitive.

In 1914, Britain invaded Kamerun early in World War I, and after they conquered the colony, they seized Cyclop and sold her to ship breakers.