"Centurion" was the first of the sisters to be completed and she became flagship of the China Station in 1894. "Barfleur" was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1895, and in February 1897 she became part of the International Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, French Navy, Imperial German Navy, Italian Royal Navy ("Regia Marina"), Imperial Russian Navy, and Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897–1898 Greek Christian uprising against the Ottoman Empire′s rule in Crete. She joined her sister on the China Station in 1898 and became the flagship of the station's second-in-command. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, both ships contributed landing parties to participate in the Battles of the Taku Forts and of Tientsin.