Placed in service on 4 October, "Nero" departed on 23 October from Mare Island on her third voyage to the Far East. Steaming to Yokohama by way of Honolulu from 23 October-27 November, she then proceeded to Cavite on 12 December to supply American forces putting down the Philippine insurrection. On 9 February 1901, the collier sailed for the United States, taking the long way home by way of Ceylon, Suez, Algiers, Malta, and Gibraltar, and docking at Norfolk on 16 April. The ship departed Norfolk on 11 June on a long coaling voyage down the east coast of South America, returning on 12 December. Two months later, she sailed again for Latin America, this time going around Cape Horn to supply the Pacific outpost of Tutuila, Samoa. Returning to the States on 29 July, "Nero" underwent overhaul at New York and then sailed on 12 October for a return voyage to the Philippines. Once again steaming through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean, the well-traveled collier arrived at Cavite on 21 December where she remained for one month, giving needed logistic support, and then returned the way she had come, putting into Boston on 28 April 1903.