As Resolución, the ship was commissioned in 1862 and participated in the Chincha Islands War of 1865–1866, taking part in the action of 17 November 1865, the bombardment of Valparaíso, and the Battle of Callao.

Damage she sustained during the war and a subsequent circumnavigation of the world to return to Spain required major repairs, prompting the Spanish Navy to convert her into a ironclad warship between 1867 and 1870 and rename her Méndez Núñez in 1870.

[1] The two screw frigates entered the Arsenal de La Carraca at San Fernando to fit out for their deployment to the southeastern Pacific Ocean.

[1] The four ships got underway from Montevideo on 10 January 1863[3] and proceeded down the coast of Patagonia, passed the Falkland Islands, rounded Cape Horn on 6 February 1863,[4] and entered the Pacific Ocean.

[5] With tensions spiking between Spain and Peru, Resolución and Nuestra Señora del Triunfo covered an operation in which many of the Spaniards in Peru embarked on the steamer Heredia at Callao and Virgen de Covadonga towed Heredia out of the harbor under the guns of Peruvian Navy warships that were ready to open fire.

[1][5] Spain and Peru avoided war, but Pinzón resigned his command on 9 November 1864 because he felt that the Spanish government had not supported his actions, and Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) José Manuel Pareja took charge of the Pacific Squadron.

[1][5] An accidental fire destroyed Nuestra Señora del Triunfo on 25 November 1864, but Pareja's squadron received reinforcements on 30 December 1864 when the screw frigates Berenguela, Reina Blanca, and Villa de Madrid joined it.

[10] This action and other early setbacks in the war culminating in a humiliating Spanish naval defeat in the Battle of Papudo on 26 November 1865, in which the Chilean Navy corvette Esmeralda captured Virgen de Covadonga, prompted Pareja to commit suicide aboard Villa de Madrid off Valparaíso, shooting himself in his cabin on 28 November 1865 while lying on his bed wearing his dress uniform.

[12][13] Learning of Pareja's death, Numancia′s commanding officer, Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Casto Méndez Núñez, took charge of the Pacific Squadron that day and transferred to Villa de Madrid.

[11][12][13] After meeting with the commanding officers of the squadron′s ships, Méndez Núñez concentrated his squadron off Valparaíso, where Resolución and Vencedora joined it on 19 December 1865.

[13] After bringing aboard supplies from a newly arrived Spanish frigate, Méndez Núñez′s squadron began operations to find and recapture Virgen de Covadonga.

[17] Several days of negotiations began on 26 April, during which Méndez Núñez granted neutral countries a four-day delay in his attack to give them time to salvage their interests in Callao.

[17] The Spanish ships used the delay to prepare for the attack: The frigates all lowered their topmasts and main yards and altered their rigging to reduce the likelihood of damage to their masts, set up on-board field hospitals, and painted over the white stripes on their hulls with black paint to reduce the ships' visibility and give Peruvian gunners less of an aiming point.

[12][17] Méndez Núñez's squadron spent the next several days at San Lorenzo Island, making repairs and tending to casualties.

[1][12][14][18][19][20] The ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope in winter,[9] and Resolución experienced great difficulty during the voyage, including the loss of her rudder on 13 June 1866, leaving her adrift and in danger of sinking.

[1] While Resolución′s crew begn the construction of a new rudder, her second-in-command took passage on Spiteful to Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro to inform Méndez Núñez of Resolución′s location and circumstances.

Méndez Núñez was anchored at the Arsenal de Cartagena base when the cantonal uprising broke out and came under Cantonalist control.

[31] After laborious negotiations, Vitoria and Almansa were returned to the Spanish Navy at Gibraltar on 26 September 1873 and incorporated into Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Miguel Lobo y Malagamba's central government squadron.

[21] On 17 September 1873, Méndez Núñez took part along with two other ships under Cantonal control — Numancia and the paddle gunboat Despertador del Cantón (known as Fernando el Católico in Spanish Navy service — in a landing at Águilas to obtain food and money.

[21] On 27 September, Méndez Núñez, Numancia, and the Cantonalist armoured frigate Tetuán bombarded Alicante, suffering light damage when coastal artillery returned fire.

[32] News of the passage of this squadron through Almería reached Cartagena on 9 October, and the Cantonalist forces made plans to attack it.

The Cantonalist forces lacked naval officers, so a cavalry general, Juan Contreras y Román, took command of the Canton's squadron,[33] which consisted of Méndez Núñez, Numancia, Tetuán, and Despertador del Cantón.

[34] Later, during the night of 10–11 October, he ordered his ships to raise sail, probably to economize on their use of coal, and a strong north wind blew his squadron offshore and eastward to a position east of Portmán, Spain.

[34] Vitoria broke off to chase Numancia, leaving Almansa, Carmen, and Navas de Tolosa to face the approaching Tetuán and Méndez Núñez.

[34] Almansa, Carmen, and Navas de Tolosa were steering toward Cartagena in the wake of Numancia and Vitoria,[34] putting them on a converging course with Méndez Núñez.

[33] Méndez Núñez, Numancia, and Despertador del Cantón departed Cartagena on 17 October 1873 to transport several Cantonal leaders to Valencia and Barcelona.

[21] In 1880, Méndez Núñez was part of the Training Squadron, which was under the overall command of Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) José Polo de Bernabé.

[21] She was in Cartagena that year when she was declared unfit for service and disarmed, having lost the seaworthiness she had displayed as a screw frigate when she was converted into an ironclad.

[21] She was decommissioned by a Royal Order of 4 June 1886 and was hulked as a prison ship at the Arsenal de Cartagena until she was stricken from the naval register in 1888.