She was the second and final member of the Nymphe class, ordered as part of a naval expansion program to counter the Danish Navy over the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein.

There, she protected individuals from the German states in Japan during the final stage of the Boshin War, helped to suppress Chinese pirates, and visited numerous ports to show the flag.

After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Medusa was trapped in Yokohama, Japan by a French squadron blockading the port; as a result, she saw no action during the conflict.

The two Nymphe-class corvettes were ordered in the early 1860s as part of a program to strengthen the Prussian Navy when the likelihood of a conflict with Denmark over the Schleswig-Holstein Question increased.

These issues were pushed aside by the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in early 1864, since new warships were needed to counter the significantly stronger Danish fleet.

Fitting-out work then commenced, and the ship was ready to begin sea trials on 15 September 1865, which were conducted between Danzig and Swinemünde and lasted to the end of the month.

[4][5] In late October, Medusa and Blitz arrived off Crete to participate in an international squadron to protect the local Greek civilians from the occupying Ottoman Army, but the necessity for their presence soon ended.

The North German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, initiated a conference between the Great Powers in Paris, France to avoid a wider war over the island.

This required passage through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara, which were closed to large foreign warships, so Heldt had to transfer to Medusa for the voyage.

She was sent to assist the Russian frigate Alexander Nevsky, which had run aground off Aarhus, but she was recalled before arriving when it became clear that the ship was beyond salvaging.

She sailed on to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, where she met the Bremen-flagged full-rigged ship Adele, which had caught fire and burned badly.

After returning to Singapore, Medusa received news from the German ambassador to Japan, Max von Brandt, that the Japanese had begun persecuting Europeans in the country, and that her presence was necessary to protect them.

She reached Hakodate in early June, where her crew observed the destruction of the former Prussian corvette Danzig, which had been sold to the Tokugawa Shogunate and renamed Kaiten.

[7] Medusa sailed to Yokohama and then to Edo, where on 19 August she joined an international fleet of warships organized to pressure the Japanese Meiji government, then in the closing days of the Boshin War, to suppress the attacks on Europeans in the country.

During the storm, the United States sloop USS Idaho was also seriously damaged, and Medusa came to her aid; her crew were thanked by President Ulysses S. Grant for their actions.

Medusa's commander sent a report back to Berlin requesting the permanent stationing of gunboats in the region to help combat the pirates, and as a result, Hertha was dispatched to join his ship.

[9] During this time the ship's engine was repaired, and she remained in the port until after the war ended, departing Yokohama on in mid-April 1871 after having received the order to return to the now-unified Germany on the second of the month.

This move would bring her closer to the Mediterranean without openly signaling Germany's intention to respond to uprisings against Ottoman rule in the Balkans.

While en route to Lisbon, the ship's crew conducted intensive weapons training to be prepared for hostilities if the use of force proved to be necessary.

Her commander and a detachment from the crew went ashore to participate in the funeral for the consuls, after which the captain negotiated with the Ottoman government in Salonika for an indemnity for the murders.

Her tour extended as far south as Rio de Janeiro, and as far north as Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies, where she stayed from 6 January to 16 February 1878.

On 30 September, the ship was inspected in Kiel and it was determined that further use would require a thorough overhaul, and so instead she was taken to Danzig where she was decommissioned and stricken from the naval register on 5 April 1881.