In any event, "Zafiro" departed Hong Kong with Dewey's squadron in April 1898 and served with it as a collier and supply ship during the Battle of Manila Bay and the ensuing Philippines campaign. The lack of documents covering her activities in 1898 and the first half of 1899 precludes any detailed narrative for that period. Presumably, she plied the waters of the Philippine Islands carrying troops, supplies, and dispatches between points in the archipelago. Based at Cavite on Luzon, she is known to have performed such missions during the period from July 1899 – June 1904. Those movements—in support of the United States Army's suppression of the Philippine insurrection and campaigns against the Moslem Moro tribesmen—took her to a host of exotic places, and the length and breadth of the islands.