The Prussians had been in search of vessels to strengthen their fleet before and during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, but Victoria arrived too late to see action in the conflict.

In 1875, she was reactivated for another deployment to the West Indies; this voyage was interrupted by a transfer to the Mediterranean Sea in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War, which the German government considered might result in riots against Europeans in the Ottoman Empire.

Victoria served intermittently as a fishery protection vessel between 1884 and 1890, before being stricken from the naval register in April 1891 and sold the following year.

[2][3][4] The keel for Augusta had been laid down at the Arman Brothers shipyard in France in mid-1863 as part of a secret order from the Confederate States Navy; the ship was originally named Osaka, supposedly for Japan.

The French government had permitted the transfer of her sister ship Augusta, but by the time Victoria was ready to sail, Denmark had lobbied France to refuse to deliver a warship to an active belligerent in the Second Schleswig War.

[1] On 1 October, she passed Skagen and steamed into the Baltic Sea, the war with Denmark all but over by that point, and three days later she anchored in the newly-acquired naval base at Kiel.

From 26 May to 1 June, she escorted the vessel carrying the remains of the Russian Crown Prince Nicholas, who had died on a tour of southern Europe.

As the threat of war with Austria rose later in the year, Victoria was recommissioned on 1 January 1866 and assigned to the Baltic Sea Squadron.

While towing the steam frigate Arcona, the hawser Victoria was using to pull the ship broke and got caught in her propeller, which had to be cleared in the shipyard.

Victoria and Augusta later conducted shooting drills off Sonderburg, and on 31 October, the ship was decommissioned, having seen no action during the Austro-Prussian War.

She left Kiel on 29 September, but her voyage out was delayed by storm damage incurred in the North Sea, which forced her to go to Portsmouth for repairs that lasted from 15 to 27 October.

She arrived in Saint-Pierre, Martinique on 26 November, and on 12 December she stopped in Havana, Cuba after unrest in the country threatened to block a shipment of tobacco that had been bought by a German firm.

Renewed unrest in Cuba during the Ten Years' War forced the ship to return to Havana from 25 March to 22 April to protect German nationals in the area.

While in Veracruz, Mexico in June, the ship received false rumors that a war had broken out between France and the North German Confederation.

She therefore steamed to Havana to seek confirmation of the political situation; there, the crew learned that the countries were not at war, and they also received orders to return home on 25 July.

The crises passed without threatening German interests, and so Victoria left Havana on 3 April for Saint Thomas, where she received orders to cross the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea.

[7] On 1 July 1880, Victoria was recommissioned for another tour in the West Indies under the command of Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) Victor Valois.

She returned to Valletta, where she received orders to sail to the Adriatic Sea to join an international naval demonstration to force the Ottoman government to relinquish the city of Ulcinj to Montenegro in accordance with the terms of the 1878 Congress of Berlin.

Around twenty vessels from Britain, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia took part in the blockade of Ulcinj and other coastal towns, under the command of British Vice Admiral Beauchamp Seymour.

The blockade began on 20 September, and by 27 November, the Ottomans caved to the demands of the Great Powers and sent in troops to force the Albanians to relinquish the city.

Victoria left Gibraltar on 7 February 1881 and picked up the ship's captain in Funchal, Madiera, before proceeding to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.

[9] While in Rio de Janeiro, Victoria received orders to return to Monrovia, because the Liberian government had failed to meet its financial obligation over the Carlos incident.

Victoria was scheduled to return to service in 1883 as a training ship, but her crew spaces were deemed too small to accommodate enough trainees, and so her place was taken by the corvette Freya.