 The navy's chief designer prepared the plans for the ship and the navy subsidized construction costs, which led the naval historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz to suggest that the navy wanted to have a steamship it could requisition when needed but would not have to maintain.The navy brought the ship into commission during the Franco-Prussian War but crew shortages delayed conversion until after the war.She was used for fishing surveys in 1871 and 1872, with this work providing the scientific basis for the German Fisheries Act passed in 1874.