In the immediate aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had become the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he pushed for a significant expansion of the fleet, and in 1871, secured funding for the construction of two new screw frigates, among other new vessels.

Late in 1881, Laudon, the ironclad Erzherzog Albrecht, and several smaller vessels were sent to Cattaro Bay to help suppress a revolt there.

During the fighting, then-Lieutenant Leodegar Kneissler led a landing party from Laudon that engaged rebel forces ashore.

[6] Following Pöck's replacement by Admiral Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck in 1884, the fleet took a more active role; for much of each year's training cycle, either Laudon or Radetzky would lead a division of a few unarmored vessels for operations in home waters.

She remained in the fleet's inventory through World War I, and in the postwar settlement, she was transferred to the Royal Yugoslav Navy in 1919, where she was renamed Prvi.