the island of Langeland and towed her to Kiel for repairs. The damage proved to be too extensive for the Königliche Werft to complete, and so Friedrich Carl had to be towed to Britain; Cyclop escorted the ship through the Skagerrak. After France declared war on Prussia in July 1870, initiating the Franco-Prussian War, Cyclop and two smaller gunboats were transferred to guard the mouth of the Elbe river. She remained there for the duration of the conflict but saw no action against the French Navy. After the Prussian victory in 1871, which saw the creation of the German Empire, along with the Imperial German Navy, she returned to her previous role as a tender in Kiel. During the year, she assisted in the transfer of a new floating dry dock from Swinemünde to Kiel in company with the ironclad and the paddle steamer . Repeated, negative experiences with Danish pilots led the Imperial Navy to send Cyclop to assist with navigation off Langeland. In August, Cyclop served as a tender to the aviso , which had returned from a scientific expedition. On 11 November, Cyclop was scheduled to begin an overhaul in Danzig, but an inspection of the hull revealed it to be in too poor a condition. Accordingly, she was stricken from the naval register on 19 March 1872 to be rebuilt. Her old wooden hull was broken up and a new iron frame was constructed. The completed vessel was re-launched on 5 August 1874, though some historians, including Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz do not consider the iron-hulled ship to be the same vessel. 1875–1881 Cyclop was recommissioned for service overseas on 27 March 1875. The ship thereafter conducted sea trials that lasted into early May. Her crew thereafter began preparations for a deployment to East Asian waters, which began on 9 May with her departure from Germany. At that time, Chinese pirates threatened European merchant vessels in the region, and Cyclop was sent to protect German ships; her shallow draft would also permit her to enter Chinese rivers to attack pirate groups. She reached Singapore on 17 July, and while there, the ship received orders to make a courtesy visit to the king of Siam. Cyclop thereafter arrived in Hong Kong on 9 August, where she met the screw frigate and the screw corvette . The cruiser unit there was at that time commanded