SMS Panther was one of six Iltis-class gunboats of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like her sister ships, served in Germany's overseas colonies. The ship was launched on 1 April 1901 in the Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig. She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 men.

In September 1902, after the Haitian rebel ship Crête-à-Pierrot hijacked a German ship and seized weapons destined for the Haitian government, Germany sent the Panther to Haiti. The Panther found the rebel ship. The rebel Admiral Killick evacuated his crew and blew up the Crête-à-Pierrot, which was by then under fire from the Panther. There were concerns about how the United States would view the action in the context of the Monroe Doctrine. But despite legal advice describing the sinking as "illegal and excessive", the US State Department endorsed the action. The New York Times declared that "Germany was quite within her rights in doing a little housecleaning on her own account". Some months later the Panther participated in the German naval contingent of the Venezuela Crisis of 1902-1903 and bombarded the settlement of Fort San Carlos, near Maracaibo.