SMS Fasana was a screw corvette of the Austro-Hungarian Navy built in the late 1860s and early 1870s, the only member of her class.

[2] The ship was powered by a single 2-cylinder, horizontal marine steam engine that drove a screw propeller.

[2] The keel for Fasana was laid down at the Navale Adriatico shipyard in Trieste on 9 October 1869, and she was launched on 1 September 1870.

[3] Upon entering service, Fasana was ordered to cruise to East Asia, in part to deliver the ratified treaties that had been agreed upon during an earlier diplomatic mission in 1869.

She arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, on 14 December, where a number of foreign warships were also at anchor, including the Italian corvette Vettor Pisani.

On 30 December, Fasana moved to Yokohama; the ship was drydocked at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal for repairs that lasted from 6 to 20 January 1872.

The ship then turned south and toured several islands in the Dutch East Indies, which culminated with a stop at the colonial capital at Batavia from 4 to 11 March.

Fasana then sailed west to Singapore, and from there, she continued on to Siam, where Calice was to exchange ratifications with King Chulalongkorn.

She made stops in Hong Kong, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Yantai over the course of June and early July.

The ship left the last port on 18 July to return to Japanese waters, which included stops in Yokohama and Kagoshima, among others.

[8] Fasana stayed in Yokohama until 4 September, and she then left to visit a number of other Japanese ports, including Kobe, Mihara, Himeshima, and Nagasaki.

While in the latter port, Calice informed the ship's captain that Fasana was to carry Siam's contribution to the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.

The captain decided to wait in Nagasaki until the beginning of the northeast monsoons before sailing for Singapore, and in that time, the crew made repairs to the ship's rigging.

Along the way, she stopped in Penang, Malaya; Galle, British Ceylon; and numerous ports along India's western coast including Kochi and Bombay.

On 18 August, Fasana was ordered to join Velebich off Spain, as a result of the Cantonal Revolution against the Spanish government.

Several of the British, French, and Italian ironclads had also moved there, and their commanders discussed the possibility of joint action against the rebels.

The latter squadron, consisting of the ironclads Tetuán, Numancia, and Méndez Núñez seized several Spanish-government-flagged merchant ships off Valencia between 18 and 21 October, but left without engaging the other European vessels.

[12] The ship left Gibraltar on 5 November and returned to Spain, initially to Malaga, and then continuing on to Barcelona and later Cartagena by early December.

By February, the active squadron saw a reshuffling of most of the other vessels in the unit, and was now under the command of Rear Admiral Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck.