She called at the Azores and Gibraltar, passed through the Suez Canal, visited Zanzibar and Mozambique, and rounded the Cape of Good Hope before arriving on station at Pernambuco, Brazil, on 13 October 1895.

She cruised in South American and West Indian waters – save for an overhaul period in Norfolk, Virginia – until March 1898.

As American relations with Spain deteriorated just prior to the April 1898 outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Castine was called north in March 1898 to take her place on the blockade surrounding Cuba.

She served in the force which accompanied the United States Army's troop transports to Cuba, and remained in the Caribbean through the close of the war in August 1898.

Castine remained at Portsmouth Navy Yard until 4 October 1908, when she recommissioned to serve as a submarine tender at U.S. East Coast naval bases until May 1913.

Conditions in the harbor had deteriorated badly by 15:45, when the ships sighted an approaching 75 ft (23 m) wave of yellow water stretching along the entire horizon.

He also ascribed the events in the harbor to an unexpected tsunami exceeding 100 ft (30 m) in height,[4] and this explanation has been carried forward by most sources discussing the incident.

The Navy Cross was awarded to the son of Rear Admiral Peter C. Assersen, Captain William Christian Asserson (21 August 1875 – 8 July 1939), for distinguished service as commanding officer of Castine while engaged in the exacting and hazardous duty of transporting troops and supplies to European ports through waters infested with enemy submarines and naval mines during World War I.

[11] Her wreck was documented further in May 2005 when a team from the United States Minerals Management Service (MMS) was identifying sonar targets.