She left the Potomac River on 24 April and proceeded to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which was her base for several months of operations investigating the "migrations of mackerel, menhaden, and other migratory species."

Over the first months of 1884, the ship operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, and, at the Navy's request, conducted hydrographic work in the Caribbean, carrying out "biological investigations" afloat and ashore.

As she plied these waters, her embarked scientists observed the movements of surface fish, examined the former tilefish grounds, and studied the "influence of the Gulf Stream on bottom fauna."

The ship spent the first half of 1885 making cruises from Washington to Pensacola, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to look into the red-snapper banks and fisheries of the gulf.

Early in 1886, Albatross proceeded to the Bahamas on a fishery and hydrographic survey; then spent the latter part of the year examining the cod and halibut banks off the Canadian Maritime provinces and dredging off Woods Hole.

From 5 to 9 April, she steamed to Norfolk from the nation's capital to familiarize officers assigned to the steamship Thetis with the dredging equipment that their ship would carry in her voyage to the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Arctic oceans.

In the autumn, Albatross conducted a trial trip to test her newly installed boilers and then carried out sounding and dredging operations along the inner edge of the Gulf Stream.

Albatross arrived at Punta Arenas, Straits of Magellan, on 23 January 1888 and remained at anchor there until 1 February, when she cleared the port to resume her circumnavigation of South America.

Continuing to operate out of San Francisco early the following year, 1891, the ship sailed on 30 January for Panama, where she embarked the noted zoologist, Alexander Agassiz, for a special expedition authorized by President Benjamin Harrison to explore the waters off the coast of Mexico, Central America, and the region around the Galápagos Islands.

That summer, she left San Francisco on 16 July 1891, bound for the Pribilof Islands, with Thomas Corwin Mendenhall and Clinton Hart Merriam — members of the Bering Sea Commission charged with preparing America's case to take before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris — embarked.

Placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, she plied the Pacific between the west coast of the United States and the Hawaiian Islands, working towards determining "a practicable route for a telegraphic cable" between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Next, temporarily assigned to the Revenue Marine Service under the Secretary of the Treasury, Albatross departed San Francisco on 19 March 1892, bound for Unalaska, Alaska, the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, to conduct fur seal investigations and gather ".

Following yard work at Mare Island which lasted into the spring of 1893, Albatross returned to Aleutian waters and resumed her duties in connection with the Alaskan fur seal and fishery investigations.

Into the autumn of 1894, the ship alternately patrolled the Bering Sea and operated in the western Aleutians, as her embarked resident naturalist, fishery expert, and scientific assistant studied the fishing grounds of that region and the "pelagic habits of the fur seals and their rookeries on the Pribilof Islands."

Dedicated exclusively to fishery work on her next cruise, the ship stood out of San Francisco on 8 May and operated in the waters of Puget Sound and off Cape Flattery until heading further north on 29 May.

Attempting to locate new halibut banks en route, she systematically studied the "streams of southeast Alaska to determine their resources, and the abundance, movements, and habits of their fishes," before ultimately returning to San Francisco on 2 November 1897.

A little over a month later, the ship sailed for the Farallons on 5 December and, the following morning, planted a shipment of eastern lobster and tautog, received by rail from the east coast, in the waters off those islands.

Soon after the United States declared war on Spain, Albatross was turned over to the commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island on 21 April 1898 for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser.

Her dredging and collecting equipment landed and stored at the yard, the ship underwent conversion at Union Iron Works, San Francisco, over the next few months.

During this alteration, her pilot house was raised to permit construction of two additional staterooms beneath it, she received a new upper bridge, and her coal bunkers were enlarged to increase her steaming radius.

During the course of this cruise over a vast ocean basin, which Alexander Agassiz named "Moser Deep" in honor of Albatross' captain, her distinguished passenger made thousands of dredgings, and soundings of the sea yielded siliceous sponges from 4,173 fathoms.

During her homeward voyage in September and October, she investigated the waters off the Pacific Northwest and California to determine their suitability for the introduction of eastern lobsters and crab, and to study the movements of salmon at sea.

On 11 March 1902, the ship sailed for Hawaii, and over the ensuing months, investigated the fish and other aquatic resources of the Hawaiian Islands, ultimately returning to San Francisco on 1 September.

The following spring, the ship embarked members of the special commission appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to investigate the conditions and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, with an eye towards conserving this important resource, and transported them to the waters of the Pacific northwest and of Alaska.

Underway on 3 May, the ship sailed for the familiar climes of the Aleutians, and, during the cruise, ranged as far as the Commander Islands (Komandorskis) and the Sea of Okhotsk, and even visited the coasts of Japan and Korea.

She investigated the salmon fisheries, the distribution of the various types of fish which inhabited the waters she traversed, and conducted scientific explorations of the northern Pacific Ocean.

[7] That summer, Albatross returned to the waters off Alaska, and the Pribilof Islands, on an inspection tour of various "government activities in which the Department of Commerce and Labor" harbored an interest.

Following repairs and alterations at Mare Island, Albatross – her armament consisting of four 6-pounders and a Colt automatic gun – departed San Francisco on 14 January 1918 and reached Key West, Florida, on 14 February.

Assigned to the American Patrol Detachment, the gunboat protected tankers transporting important oil and petroleum cargo in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean.

On 21 November 1918, 10 days after the armistice stilled the guns of World War I, the Chief of Naval Operations directed that Albatross, upon the completion of repairs at New Orleans, be released from duty with the American Patrol Detachment.