They stopped in Hamburg; Danzig, Prussia; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Karlskrona, Sweden, but they avoided British and French ports on their way to and from the Baltic, and did not continue on to visit Russia either; all three countries were still resentful of Austria's failure to enter the Crimean War on either the Anglo-French or Russian sides.

[2] In early 1859, tensions between Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia rose significantly, prompting the Austrian government to order the fleet to mobilize in February to be prepared for an attack by the Royal Sardinian Navy.

They did not sortie to attach the French or Sardinian naval forces, and the war ended quickly after the defeats at Magenta and Solferino in June.

[3] Already in late 1862, the head of the Austrian Navy, Archduke Ferdinand Max, offered the sale Erzherzog Friedrich and several other wooden ships in an attempt to acquire funds to build a fleet of ironclad warships, though the proposal came to nothing.

[4] After the start of the Second Schleswig War in February 1864, which saw Austria and Prussia fighting Denmark, the Austrian Navy deployed several warships to the North Sea to engage the Danish fleet.

Erzherzog Friedrich joined the ship of the line Kaiser, the paddle steamer Elisabeth and a gunboat, departing Austrian waters in April under the command of Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair.

As the fleet made its preparations, the ships carried out extensive practice in the Fasana Channel, which was protected from an Italian attack by naval mines.

Erzherzog Friedrich and the other wooden vessels were fitted with iron chains that draped down over the sides of their hulls to give them a degree of protection for the coming fight with Italy's larger fleet of ironclads.

Tegetthoff initially believed the attack to be a feint to draw his fleet away from Venice and Trieste, but by the 19th, it had become clear that the Italians intended to land on the island.

[8] The second line, led by Kommodore Anton von Petz aboard Kaiser, also included Erzherzog Friedrich and the screw frigates Radetzky, Adria, Donau, Schwarzenberg, and Novara.

[10] In October 1868, Erzherzog Friedrich and Donau sailed from Trieste on a major voyage to Siam, China, and Japan to negotiate trade treaties with those countries.

[11] Erzherzog Friedrich initially sailed to China, arriving in Shanghai on 24 November, where she underwent repairs to her caboose and water distiller, which were completed by 10 December.

[12] Erzherzog Friedrich then moved to Singapore, where she awaited orders to pick up ratified copies of the treaties that Petz had negotiated the previous year.

[13] By July, the Austrian Reichsrat and the Diet of Hungary had failed to ratify the treaties before the end of their legislative sessions, so the naval command decided to send Erzherzog Friedrich back north to Japan, so she would be available in the event that the legislatures passed the treaties in the winter months (and to avoid the northeast monsoons in the southwest Pacific).

She remained there for several days, waiting on mail from Shanghai for news from Europe, and on 18 August, her crew marked the birthday of Kaiser Franz Joseph.

In the meantime, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to postpone ratification of the treaties, allowing the naval command to order Erzherzog Friedrich home on 11 August.

She initially stopped in Lissa on 24 June, before returning to Pola four days later; the ship then sailed back south to Fiume on 4 July.

Erzherzog Friedrich thereafter crossed the Pacific, visiting San Francisco, United States, along with several South American countries on her voyage back to the Adriatic, which she reached in 1876.

[19] Erzherzog Friedrich was decommissioned in 1897,[20] and was struck from the naval register in August that year, to be converted into a transport to carry boilers from Pola to Trieste.