As built, the ship was armed with a main battery of fourteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

She was one of the three ships that participated in the seizure of the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory under the command of Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs.

She subsequently was present in the Philippines in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Manila Bay between American and Spanish squadrons during the Spanish–American War in 1898.

In 1883, General Leo von Caprivi became the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty, and at the time, the pressing question that confronted all of the major navies was what type of cruiser to build to replace the obsolete rigged screw corvettes that had been built in the 1860s and 1870s.

Cruisers could be optimized for service with the main fleet or for deployments abroad, and while the largest navies could afford to build dedicated ships of each type, Germany could not.

Her propulsion system consisted of two horizontal AG Germania 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engines that drove a pair of screw propellers.

[2] The ship was armed with a main battery of four 15 cm RK L/30 guns in single pedestal mounts, supplied with 400 rounds of ammunition in total.

[9] A second round of trials followed from 16 April to 20 June 1891, under the command of Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Oscar Boeters; during this period, in late May, the ship returned to the shipyard for alterations.

The imperial couple then transferred to their yacht, Hohenzollern, for a cruise that included stops in Cowes and Leith in the United Kingdom, and Tromsø and Nordkapp in Norway.

In early August, the ship was sent to the Mediterranean to represent Germany in the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus, celebrations for which were held in Spain and Italy.

[8] Prinzess Wilhelm underwent a modernization that lasted until 10 October 1893, when she was recommissioned for service as a guard ship stationed in Wilhelmshaven.

[12] Prinzess Wilhelm ran aground off the town of Rønne, Denmark, and had to be pulled free by the corvette Blücher and the old brig Musquito.

After her crew completed preparations for the lengthy deployment abroad, during which time KK Henning von Holtzendorff relieved now-KzS Borckenhagen, Prinzess Wilhelm left Wilhelmshaven on 27 April.

While the ship passed through the Red Sea, several men of the crew died from heat stroke due to the extreme temperatures and poor ventilation.

Prinzess Wilhelm arrived in Shanghai, China, on 4 July, where she met her sister Irene, which was serving as the division's flagship.

[15] After she joined her sister Irene in East Asian waters, the division was reinforced with the rebuilt old ironclad Kaiser, the light cruiser Cormoran, the corvette Arcona, and the gunboat Iltis.

[17] That year, Prinzess Wilhelm assisted in the suppression of a major fire in Hakodate, Japan, and later surveyed the Huangpu River as a potential naval base for the squadron.

[7] While anchored in Port Hamilton in May 1896, Prinzess Wilhelm received orders to enter the Yangtze river in China and steam to the city of Nanjing.

[15][19] Prinzess Wilhelm did not remain out of the drydock in Nagasaki for long; a major machinery breakdown in mid-December forced her return for repairs that lasted until mid-January 1897.

[7] In June, Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs arrived in Asia to take command of the division; Prinzess Wilhelm, Irene, and Arcona were in Yantai conducting gunnery training.

[20] In October, Diederichs planned to rotate his ships through repair facilities in the region for periodic maintenance; Prinzess Wilhelm was scheduled to dock in Shanghai.

The landing party remained in Jiaozhou to garrison the port, and several 3.7 cm guns were removed from the ships to provide artillery to the force.

On 4 May, Diederichs made Prinzess Wilhelm his flagship and sent Kaiser to Nagasaki and followed the next day, after Prince Heinrich reached Jiaozhou.

The Spanish–American War had broken out on 25 April and Commodore George Dewey had defeated the Spanish squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May.

Upon arriving in Nagasaki, Diederichs learned the shipyard had not yet completed repairs to Kaiser, and so was unable to refit Prinzess Wilhelm for some time.

After her arrival, Prinzess Wilhelm proceeded to Mariveles to replenish her coal supplies and receive new crewmen from the transport Darmstadt On 9 August, the American squadron in the Bay ordered the neutral warships in the harbor to leave the bombardment zone, and so Prinzess Wilhelm and the other German ships went to Mariveles.