With a capacity of 400 first-class, 120 second-class, and 580 third-class passengers in commercial use, she was designed so that she could be converted into an auxiliary cruiser for service in the Imperial German Navy in the event of a war.

One of them was Columbia, which the Russians purchased from the Hamburg America Line for Dobroflot shortly after the war began and steamed to Libau, where she underwent conversion into an auxiliary cruiser.

[20][21] By 28 September, Terek had arrived at Lisbon, Portugal,[18] and on 4 October 1904 she stopped the British merchant ship Carisbrook in the Bay of Biscay and detained her for a lengthy period while examining her papers before allowing her to proceed.

Although Rozhestvensky himself departed Libau on 16 October 1904 with the majority of the Baltic Fleet forces bound for East Asia – by now redesignated as the Second Pacific Squadron – Terek remained at Libau for another month, finally departing on 16 November 1904 in company with the protected cruisers Izumrud and Oleg, the auxiliary cruiser Kuban, the hospital ship Orel, and the destroyers Gromki, Grozni, Prozorlivi, Ryani, and Ryezvi.

She transited the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal and rendezvoused with the rest of the Second Pacific Squadron at Nosy Be off the northwest coast of Madagascar on 13 January 1905.

[23][24][25] She accompanied the squadron, performing scouting, reconnaissance, and escort functions and providing security for the other warships while they coaled, as it crossed the Indian Ocean, transited the Strait of Malacca, and passed through the South China Sea.

Rozhestvenski hoped that their activities would provide a diversion that would distract the Japanese and tie down some of their naval forces while the Second Pacific Squadron passed through the Strait of Tsushima and the Sea of Japan.

[28][29] The two raiders do not seem to have had much success at drawing away Japanese naval forces, but Rozhestvenski's decision to detach them spared them from the almost complete annihilation of his squadron in the Battle of Tsushima on 27–28 May 1905, and Terek subsequently captured and sank two ships carrying war materiel to Japan.

[citation needed] She arrived at Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies on 29 June 1905, putting the crew of Prinsesse Marie ashore and demanding coal, but the Dutch colonial authorities refused.