Bussard-class cruiser was present in the Caribbean during the Spanish–American War in 1898, though she took no active role in the conflict. Between 1898 and 1900, "Bussard" and "Seeadler" were modernized in Germany. In 1900, "Seeadler" participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China, including a blockade of the Chinese coast. In December 1902, "Falke" and the protected cruiser joined British forces in the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03 after Venezuelan forces seized a British merchant ship. The two cruisers helped British warships bombard Venezuelan coastal fortifications and blockade the coast. "Cormoran" and "Geier" were modernized between 1907 and 1909; only
USS Maine (ACR-1) following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the eagle on top was broken and removed. The Communist government then added its own inscription blaming "imperialist voracity in its eagerness to seize the island of Cuba" for "Maine"s sinking. The monument was cleaned and restored in 2013. However, the eagle's head was retained by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, and the body by the city's museum. A bronze torpedo tube and armoured hatch form part of a memorial in West Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just south of West North Avenue, http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM769B_Maine_Memorial_Pittsburgh_PA There is also a U.S.S. Maine Memorial plaque<visible in photographs