by shortages of the 12 cm guns, since four of the guns that were slated to be installed aboard the ship were instead diverted to Spain on 11 July, which was in need of additional weapons as it was in the midst of fighting the Cuban War of Independence. Additional guns were ordered on 27 April 1898 and were delivered on 22 April 1899. Named for the Battle of Zenta, the ship was completed on 25 May, at a cost of 4.2 million krone, commissioned three days later, and was ordered to deploy to East Asia to serve as the station ship in Chinese waters. She left Pola on 10 November 1899 and relieved the homeward-bound station ship, the protected cruiser , in Colombo, British Ceylon between 22 and 28 December. The ship arrived in Singapore on 3 January 1900 and then continued on to Hong Kong. Zenta embarked on a tour of ports in China in February, including those along the Yangtze River, before returning to Shanghai on 7 May. From there, she crossed to Japan, where the ship was on 30 May when the worsening Boxer Rebellion prompted the European diplomats in the country to request forces to guard the Legation Quarter. Zenta joined the international fleet that assembled as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance off the Taku Forts on 2 June; she operated there for the next twenty days. On 3 June, a landing party led by the ship's captain, Eduard von Montalmar, that consisted of one officer, two officer cadets, and thirty enlisted men went ashore to relieve the Legations; they helped to guard the embassies there during the siege of the Legations for the next two months. Another party, consisting of an officer, three cadets, and seventy-three men joined the force that stormed the Taku Forts on 17 June. Montalmar and three sailors were killed during the war with another four sailors later dying of their wounds. Zenta moved to Chefoo from 23 to 25 June and then returned to Taku from 26 June to 5 August. The armored cruiser arrived in Taku two days later and her commander took control of Austro-Hungarian naval forces in the region. On 24 November, the ship returned to Japan, where she was briefly drydocked for maintenance in December. In early January 1901, Zenta then sailed south to Bangkok, Siam, arriving there on 17 January. The ship arrived in