Her total cost, including delivery, was 1,419,629.51 silver rubles. En route she only took 11 days to reach Cherbourg from New York City under steam, a record time for a warship at that time. She sailed for the Mediterranean the following year under the command of Captain Shestakov, stopping at Kiel in July 1860. While in the Mediterranean she made port visits at Beirut, Piraeus and Nice. "General Admiral" departed Nice on 16 April 1863 for the Baltic Sea. She met the newly completed coast-defence ship en route and escorted her from England to the Baltic. Three years later, on 8 June 1866, "General Admiral" departed Kronstadt for the Mediterranean, making a port visit at Copenhagen on 22 June en route. In June 1867 she made another port visit at Piraeus before leaving Cadiz on 26 July bound for the Baltic. She returned to the Mediterranean the next year and evacuated Cretan insurgents and their families in 1868 during the Cretan Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Having returned to Russia by 1869, she was struck from the Navy List on 26 June 1869 and broken up the following year.