 As anti @-@ foreign violence began to rise in China in early 1900 , the Great Powers began to send warships to the Far East to increase the pressure on the Chinese government to reign in the violence . At the peak of the Boxer Rebellion , Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was deployed to the area under the command of Victor Ritter Bless von Sambuchi , along with numerous other European warships . She left Pola in June , and was followed by the cruisers Kaiserin Elisabeth and Aspern the next month . The ships joined the international fleet off Taku in September 1900 , though by that time , most of the fighting had already occurred . Nevertheless , Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and Aspern remained in East Asian waters for an extended deployment . Captain Anton Haus took command of the ship , and in June 1901 , he took the ship to Hankow up the Yangtze River ; she was the largest ship to have steamed that far up the river . She returned to Austria @-@ Hungary in 1902 , and was replaced in China by the new armored cruiser Kaiser Karl VI . 
