SMS Olga was the second 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.

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

Konteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Carl Ferdinand Batsch gave the speech at her launching ceremony, where she was named for Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, the wife of Charles I of Württemberg.

Olga stayed in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 16 January 1883 to 11 February, and during this period, the ship's captain and Prince Heinrich chartered the steamship SS Arthur to explore the Orinoco river in Venezuela.

[5] Olga began the voyage back to Germany on 5 January 1884, and on the way had to stop in Plymouth again due to storm damage.

While the ship was under repair, Prince Heinrich again went to visit Queen Victoria in London, this time accompanied by Georg Herbert Münster, the German ambassador to Britain.

The ships' shallow draft allowed them to proceed upriver to provide gunfire support to the men fighting on land.

She was relieved by the gunboat Habicht on 2 April; at that point, she left western Africa and returned to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 25 May.

Olga left Germany on 29 October and arrived in East African waters on 29 December, meeting Bismarck, the flagship of KAdm Eduard von Knorr.

[6] The squadron arrived on 25 December, and Olga was tasked with patrolling the coast of Wituland and raising the German flag in Manda Bay (in what is now Kenya) in January 1887.

She was also sent to force the extradition of the murderers of the German explorer Karl Ludwig Jühlke, and transported the men from Kismayo to Zanzibar.

They arrived in Sydney, Australia on 9 June; that day, Olga's captain suddenly died and the executive officer took command of the vessel.

On 19 September, the Admiralty ordered Olga to return to Samoa, as tensions in the islands during the Samoan Civil War required the presence of a warship larger than a gunboat.

While en route, she embarked the deposed King of Samoa, Malietoa Laupepa, in Aden and carried him first to Jaluit in the Marshall Islands and then to Apia on 14 December.

Four days later, they were attacked by Tamasese's forces; in the ensuing First Battle of Vailele, two officers and thirteen men from Olga were killed.

Olga reached Kiel on 9 September and proceeded on to the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig for further repairs.

Olga was activated for training duties for the first time on 25 July 1893 to take part in divisional exercises with the rest of the fleet that were held every year.

On 31 March 1897, Olga was reclassified as a third class cruiser, and she was transferred to the Fisheries School in November to replace the old aviso Zieten, which had recently been decommissioned temporarily.

[7] Olga participated in a scientific cruise to the Spitzbergen archipelago with a group of experts from the German Sea Fishing Association.

[4] Olga returned to fishery protection service in the North Sea on 4 October, though this was interrupted later that month by a training cruise to Vigo, Spain.