to make them more habitable. On 1 May 1868, Delphin was finally recommissioned for her assignment, but conflicts in the Reichstag (Diet of the Realm) over budgets forced the navy to cancel Delphins deployment to save money. Accordingly, she was placed out of service temporarily. In August, Delphin was recommissioned and on the 21st, began the voyage to the Mediterranean. While en route, damage to her engine forced her to stop in Algiers for repairs. She finally reached Constantinople on 17 October, and on 24 October she steamed to the mouth of the Danube at Sulina. She steamed about upstream to the town of Giurgiu before returning to Constantinople. She made a similar trip up the Danube in 1869, and also stopped in Varna, Bulgaria on the way back to Constantinople. In October, Delphin took Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm from Corinth, Greece to Constantinople, where he met Sultan Abdülaziz. Friedrich Wilhelm then moved to the corvette , and on 28 October, Delphin was sent to Port Said, where the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal were scheduled to take place on 17 November. There, she investigated the possibility of Friedrich Wilhelm transiting the canal aboard Hertha. She remained there for the ceremonies, staying there until 10 December when she returned to Constantinople. On 11 April 1870, Delphin received the order to return to Prussia, though she was damaged off the mouth of the Tagus River in Portugal, forcing her to put into Lisbon for repairs. She reached Plymouth on 16 June, where she rendezvoused with the armored frigate and the artillery school ship from the Armored Squadron. Three days later, she joined the Armored Squadron for a cruise in the Atlantic, though on 22 June, Delphin and Renown were detached to return to Prussia. They arrived in Kiel on 28 June, where Delphin was decommissioned on 11 July. Delphin was in need of repairs after her lengthy tour in the Mediterranean; as a result, she was not recommissioned when the Franco-Prussian War broke out eight days after her decommissioning. The vessel was ready to return to service only by 22 April 1871, by which time the war was all but over. She was ordered to begin another deployment to the Mediterranean on 13 May, but her departure was delayed until 29 August. The ship stopped in Algiers on 29 September and Tunis on 1 October, both in French North Africa;