"Tegetthoff"s career was rather limited, in large part due to significant problems with her engines. For the first decade of her career, she was assigned to the Active Squadron, and her crew could only keep her engines fully operational in the years 1883, 1887, and 1888. "Tegetthoff" and an Austro-Hungarian squadron that included the ironclads "Custoza", , , and and the torpedo cruisers and travelled to Barcelona, Spain, to take part in the opening ceremonies for the Barcelona Universal Exposition. This was the largest squadron of the Austro-Hungarian Navy that had operated outside the Adriatic. In June and July 1889, "Tegetthoff" participated in fleet training exercises, which also included the ironclads "Custoza", , "Kaiser Max", "Prinz Eugen", and "Don Juan d'Austria".