SMS Marie was a member of the Carola class of steam corvettes built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s.

Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns.

She was sent to Chile to protect German nationals in the aftermath of the Chilean Civil War of 1891, before joining two of her sister ships off Brazil in 1893 in response to the Revolta da Armada (Revolt of the Fleet) there.

Marie and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.

Marie arrived in the port on 25 September and transferred the scientists and equipment to the HSDG steamship SS Persepolis, which took them back to Germany.

Chile and Peru had signed the Treaty of Ancón on 20 October, but Marie remained in the area until January 1884, when she began a tour of South American ports along the western coast of the continent, as far north as Puerto San José, Guatemala.

[9] She reached Apia on 30 October,[5] and while there, her presence helped to coerce the king of Samoa into allowing Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg to control the Samoan treasury and police.

While the work was being done, a group of 12 men were sent in one of Marie's boats to relay news of the accident to Mioko island, some 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) away.

The ships reached Keppel Bay on 16 April, where the corvette Stosch was waiting to tow Marie to Sydney for further repairs, which lasted from 6 May to 29 September.

After emerging from the dry dock, she slowly steamed back to Germany to avoid stressing the damaged hull, arriving in Wilhelmshaven on 9 February 1886, where she was decommissioned for extensive repairs.

[11] After repairs were completed, Marie remained laid up until late 1892, when she was recommissioned to relieve her sister ship Sophie in the overseas cruiser squadron.

[12] At the time, the navy had implemented a plan whereby Germany's colonies would be protected by gunboats, while larger warships would generally be kept in reserve, with a handful assigned to a flying squadron that could respond to crises quickly.

The outbreak of the Revolta da Armada (Revolt of the Fleet) in Brazil prompted the navy to send Marie there to protect German interests, and she joined her sisters Alexandrine and Arcona there.

Marie stopped in Puerto Montt, Chile, from 25 January to 8 February, before proceeding around Cape Horn and north to Brazil.

She met Arcona on 24 February, and the three corvettes remained off Brazil until April, when the ships were sent to East Asia in response to growing tensions between China and Japan over Korea.

On 8 May, Marie left Rio de Janeiro, but she had to stop again in Port Montt in June due to engine troubles, which delayed her rejoining the other two corvettes in Callao on 12 July.

In Port Said on 21 July, she was ordered to Morocco to help enforce a settlement with local authorities over the murder of a pair of German businessmen.

She joined a flotilla consisting of the protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, the coastal defense ship Hagen, and Stosch on 8 August in Tangier.