Wisconsin served as the flagship of the Pacific Fleet from her commissioning to 1903; during this period, she made one long distance cruise to American Samoa in late 1901.

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Wisconsin's training duties expanded to engine room personnel.

Initial debate over whether to build a new low-freeboard design like the Indiana-class battleships in service or a higher-freeboard vessel like Iowa (then under construction) led to a decision to adopt the latter type.

The mixed secondary armament of 6 and 8 in (152 and 203 mm) guns of previous classes was standardized to just 6-inch weapons to save weight and simplify ammunition supplies.

The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 10,000 indicated horsepower (7,500 kW), driving two screw propellers.

The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 6 in (152 mm)/40 caliber Mark IV guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull.

Later that month, she joined the battleships Oregon and Iowa, the protected cruiser Philadelphia, and the torpedo boat Farragut for a tour of the west coast of the United States.

[3] Wisconsin entered the drydock at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington on 23 July for repairs that lasted until 14 October.

She arrived in Tutuila on 5 November, and stayed with the collier Abarenda and the hospital ship Solace for about two weeks before steaming to Apia in German Samoa.

[3] The ship took part in gunnery training off Tacoma and Seattle before additional maintenance at Puget Sound on 29 August.

The Thousand Days' War was being waged in Panama, and so Casey brought representatives from the two sides aboard Wisconsin for negotiations that ultimately ended the conflict.

Rear Admiral Philip H. Cooper, the commander of the Northern Squadron, Asiatic Fleet hoisted his flag aboard Wisconsin on 15 June.

[3] Wisconsin spent the next three years in the Asiatic Fleet; during this time, her routine consisted of operations off north China and Japan in the summer and in the Philippines in the winter.

She visited numerous East Asian ports, including Kobe, Yokohama, Nagasaki in Japan and Amoy, Shanghai, Yantai, Nanjing, and Taku in China.

Wisconsin spent a week there before steaming north to Puget Sound, where she was decommissioned on 16 November for a lengthy overhaul that lasted until the end of April 1908.

There, she joined the Great White Fleet, which had departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, the previous year on the first leg of its global cruise.

The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.

[5] After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama.

After returning to service in June, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, and she joined her unit in Hampton Roads at the end of the month.

[3] The ship conducted exercises with the rest of the fleet off the Virginia Capes until the middle of December, when she departed for New York, where she would spend Christmas and New Year's Day.

In early 1915, Wisconsin was assigned to the United States Naval Academy Practice Squadron, along with the battleships Missouri and Ohio.

She then took part in squadron exercises from 13 to 19 August; these included the battleships Kearsarge, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and Maine.

While en route, she received orders to cruise close to shore, as the German submarine U-151 had been operating in the area since 23 May, and had sunk several ships.

[3] Following the German surrender in November 1918, most of the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were used as transports to ferry American soldiers back from France.

Wisconsin and her sisters were not so employed, however, owing to their short range and small size, which would not permit sufficient additional accommodations.