[1] Her keel was laid at the Arsenal de La Carraca in San Fernando, Spain, on 13 May 1853,[1] and another sources claims that she was not re-authorized as a screw frigate until a Royal Order to that effect was promulgated on 3 February 1854.

Princesa de Asturias′s construction as a screw frigate required the extension of her sternpost and dismantling some of her frames to allow the installation of her engine and boilers.

Technical challenges and difficulty in procuring materials resulted in a lengthy construction process, but she was launched on 17 November 1857,[1] and completed late in the autumn of 1859.

[1] Near the end of 1859, she proceeded to Algeciras to join a Spanish Navy squadron under the command of Joaquín Gutierrez de Rubalcava assembling for operations off Morocco.

[1] She became squadron flagship on 24 February 1860 and took part in the transportation of 35,000 soldiers to Ceuta, a blockade of the Moroccan coast, and a bombardment of Martil (known to the Spanish as Río Martin).

[1] After the end of hostilities, she escorted the British merchant ship Earl of Londsdale with the Spanish steamer Francisco de Asís, which brought to Gibraltar an indemnity Sultan Muhammad IV agreed to pay as part of the peace settlement.

[1] Princesa de Asturias soon deployed to the Caribbean and was assigned to the naval base at Havana in the Captaincy General of Cuba.

At the beginning of July 1860, she participated as part of a squadron under the overall command of Gutierrez de Rubalcava — which also included the screw frigates Berenguela and Reina Blanca, the paddle gunboats Francisco de Asís and Isabel la Católica, and the transport steamer Velasco — in a naval demonstration off Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to put pressure on the government of Haiti to halt aggressive actions against the neighboring First Dominican Republic.

[1] Princesa de Asturias returned to Spain in 1862 and began an assignment to the Training Squadron, which was under the overall command of Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Luis Hernández Pinzón y Alvarez.

[1] During a naval review at Alicante, Queen Isabella II and King Francisco transferred from the paddle gunboat General Liniers to Princesa de Asturias on 12 September 1862.

[1] She got underway on 23 January for Santo Domingo, where she took part in a blockade of Manzanillo on the coast of Monte Cristi Province[1] during the Dominican Restoration War.

Her commanding officer immediately joined the uprising,[1] which ended on 27 September and resulted in the deposition of Isabella II and the proclamation of a provisional government.

[1] In a report dated 19 April 1870, Asturias′s commanding officer described her seaworthiness as excellent, with her rigging and small boats in good condition and her bottom lined and nailed with copper.

She emerged from the conversion with a reduced displacement of 1,576 tons and her hull painted black with two stripes, giving her the appearance of a two-deck ship,[1] although as a frigate she had only one gun deck.