SMS Nautilus was the second and final member of the Albatross class of steam gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s.

The ship was ordered as part of a construction program intended to begin replacing the old Jäger-class gunboats that had been built a decade earlier.

Unlike the older ships, Nautilus was intended to serve abroad to protect German economic interests overseas.

The deployment was in response to attacks against Germans in the country, including the summary execution of a retired captain of the Prussian Navy on the orders of Prince Carlos, the leader of the Carlist rebellion against the First Spanish Republic.

Therefore, Nautilus and Albatross were to be sent; they were ordered to avoid interfering in internal Spanish affairs and to act in close cooperation with Paul von Hatzfeldt, the German ambassador to Spain.

Their presence prompted rumors that the Germans would intervene in the fighting in Spain, and Carlist artillery batteries opened fire on them while they cruised off Guetaria.

[7] As weather in the area worsened as winter approached, Albatross was ordered to return to Germany on 19 December, while Nautilus departed the following day for La Plata, by way of the West Indies.

But events in northern Spain would quickly see both ships recalled; the Rostock-flagged brig Gustav had put in at Guetaria due to the weather, and Carlist forces had opened fire, prompting the crew to abandon the vessel.

They eventually reached an acceptable resolution, and the two sides exchanged salutes in Guetaria on 28 April, formally ending the incident.

[8] Nautilus thereafter sailed south to visit ports in Morocco on 12 June; she cruised off the Moroccan coast through the end of September, interrupted only by a period of repair in Cadiz, Spain.

Found to be in good condition, she received a pair of 4 cm (1.6 in) anti-balloon guns, at the insistence of her new captain, KK Victor Valois, in preparation for another deployment overseas.

While in Port Said, Egypt, on 19 April, the ship received orders to divert to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire in response to the murder of the German and French consuls in Salonika.

She arrived in Singapore on 11 September, where she joined the German cruising unit in the area, led by Alexander von Monts aboard the screw frigate Vineta.

But a typhoon struck Yokohama, Japan, on 2 October while Nautilus was in the harbor, and she was driven into a British steamship, suffering damage.

On 30 November, Valois, the captain of the screw frigate Elisabeth, and Carl von Eisendecher, the German ambassador to Japan, paid a visit to Emperor Meiji.

Once again, while in Port Said on 16 March, the ship received a change of instructions, this time to sail for the coast of Ottoman Palestine, where unrest directed against Europeans necessitated intervention to prevent attacks.

[10] Nautilus departed on 17 June, bound for Australia, and while passing through the English Channel, she stopped in Folkestone, Britain, to check the salvage operation attempting to raise the ironclad Grosser Kurfürst, which had accidentally sunk there earlier that year.

While Nautilus was in Auckland from 26 April to 20 May, the Tongan crown prince died, and the ship carried his body back to Nukuʻalofa.

On 26 June, Nautilus arrived back in Apia, where she rendezvoused with the gunboat Hyäne, which was sent to reinforce the German presence in the region.

She also sent her landing party ashore to take part in a parade held on 9 November in honor of the birthday of Albert, Prince of Wales.

Nautilus then returned south to Cape Town on 4 February, where Aschenborn sent his report on Lüderitz Bay to the German government.

On 13 August, Nautilus} moved to Tientsin, where she could be at the disposal of the German ambassador in Beijing; she remained there until the end of March 1885.

She thereafter toured several Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ports in the region before joining the other ships of the cruiser squadron, led by Bismarck.

While the ships were at sea, an outbreak of cholera affected thirty-two of Nautilus's crew, forcing her to stop in Nagasaki to take them to a hospital.

The other ships of the cruiser squadron were ordered to sail to the recently created colony of German East Africa, but Nautilus remained behind.

The ship was to pass through the Sulu Archipelago to ensure that disputes between the Spanish colonial government and the local residents did not threaten other Europeans, but this proved to be unnecessary.

[16] From 4 to 26 December, Nautilus carried the German explorers Carl Peters and Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire from Saadani to Mombasa, Kenya; on the way, she stopped in Lamu and Manda Bay in Wituland.

The poor communications of the period meant that neither the Admiralty or the crew aboard Nautilus were aware that the Abushiri revolt had broken out against German rule in East Africa.

She operated in the western Baltic Sea for the next two years, surveying various coastal areas, including a part of Danzig Bay where the ironclads Deutschland and Kaiser had run aground during training maneuvers.