The engines were rated at a total of 1,000 nominal horsepower or 4,500 indicated horsepower (3,400 kW), and gave Vitoria a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)[4] The ironclad carried a maximum of 875 metric tons (861 long tons) of coal[5] that gave her a range of 2,400 nautical miles (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[2] She was fitted with a three-masted ship rig with a sail area of around 1,800–1,900 square meters (19,000–20,000 sq ft).

When Vitoria was refitted in France in 1896–1898, her armament was changed to six Hontoria 160 mm and eight Canet 140-millimeter (5.5 in) rifled breech-loading guns and a pair of 354-millimeter (14 in) torpedo tubes.

Shortly after the Cantonists seized Cartagena and all the Spanish Navy's ships there, Vitoria and the armed steamer Vigilante sailed to Alicante and persuaded the city government to join the rebels.

Vitoria and the frigate Almansa attempted to extort the port of Almería; the German commander, Reinhold von Werner, learned of the incident and sent his flagship, the armored frigate SMS Friedrich Carl and the British ironclad HMS Swiftsure to intervene.

Vitoria engaged the rebel flagship, the ironclad Numancia, at close range before the latter turned and fled to port.

Vitoria then engaged the third rebel ironclad, Tetuán, exchanging broadsides at close range, though neither vessel was seriously damaged in the encounter.

[16] As Cartagena was in the process of surrendering, Numanica evaded the blockading force on the night of 12 January and sought refuge in the port of Oran, in French North Africa the following day.

Vitoria and the monitor Puigcerdá bombarded various rebel-controlled towns during the later stages of the Third Carlist War of 1872–1876.