was an unprotected cruiser of the built for the French Navy in the late 1860s. and her sister ship varied from the other members of the class in some details, including their armament, so they are sometimes considered to be a sub-class. The two ships were armed with a battery of six guns, all on the upper deck. was completed in 1875, but was not activated until 1878, when she was ordered abroad to protect French interests in East Asia, where she remained through mid-1881. She was recommissioned in 1885 to reinforce French units fighting the Sino-French War with China, though by the time she arrived, the fighting was over. The ship therefore immediately returned to France. She next recommissioned in 1889 to patrol the North Atlantic, and the following year she was sent south to participate in the First Franco-Dahomean War. Her activities during the conflict were limited to helping to enforce a blockade of the coast. was decommissioned in 1891 for repairs and saw little active service thereafter. She was used as a training ship from 1894 to 1898, then also as a headquarters for harbor vessels in Lorient until 1905. She was then converted into a barracks ship before being sold in 1913.

Design

The of unprotected cruiser was ordered as part of a major construction program to modernize the French cruising fleet. The ships were designed in the late 1860s; the ships were based on the earlier steam corvette , but influenced by the armament adopted for the larger s. The adopted an armament of just a few medium-caliber guns instead of a larger number of light weapons as had been used in older French cruisers. The French Navy wanted the new ships to be able to bombard coastal fortifications, which required the larger guns. A total of ten ships were ordered to the design. The last pair, and were altered slightly, becoming a distinct sub-class.

Characteristics was long overall, and she had a beam of . She had an average draft of that was at most at the stern, and she displaced . She had a wooden hull with a clipper bow. Her normal crew numbered 154 officers and sailors.

The ship's propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal compound engine that drove a single screw propeller. Steam for the engine was provided by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers, which were vented through a funnel located amidships. The propulsion system was designed to produce for a top speed of around . In service, these figures varied between and speeds of . Coal storage amounted to , which allowed the ships to steam for up to at a cruising speed of . The ship was fitted with a three-masted barque rig to supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad.

The two -subclass ships carried a different armament than their half-sisters, consisting of a uniform main battery of six M1870 guns. One gun was on the raised forecastle, another was on the poop deck, and the other four were in barbette mounts, two per broadside. The ship also carried a mountain gun. received a pair of Hotchkiss revolver cannon for close-range defense against torpedo boats in 1878. She received four more Hotchkiss guns by 1889.

Service history

was laid down on 17 August 1868 at the shipyard in Cherbourg. She was launched on 19 September 1872, after which fitting out commenced. She was commissioned on 1 November 1874 to begin sea trials, which were completed in January 1875. She was then reduced to the 3rd category of reserve on 17 January.

The ship next returned to service on 10 November 1878 for a deployment to the China station to protect French interests in the country. sailed from Cherbourg on 28 December and spent the next eighteen months abroad. In 1880, the French squadron on the China station consisted of the flagship, the screw frigate , , the cruiser , and the gunboat . was in Japanese waters in July 1880 when she, , and came to the assistance of the British ironclad warship , which had grounded on a rock off the coast of Hokkaido. While trying to pull Iron Duke free, struck bottom herself, and while freeing herself, accidentally collided with . Neither ship was seriously damaged in the collision, though suffered some damage from the grounding. arrived back in Cherbourg on 8 June 1881. During a refit in 1883, her forecastle was extended by .

was next reactivated in early 1885 to reinforce French forces waging the Sino-French War, but she arrived there on 11 April and the fighting was largely over. She did join the forces that had instituted a blockade of Formosa, however. Secret negotiations between French and Chinese representatives had already begun, as both countries were losing patience with the costly war, and in late April, an agreement was reached that ended the war, though it was not formally signed until 9 June. Following the end of the conflict, returned to France in company with the cruiser . The two cruisers towed several torpedo boats from Chinese waters to Saigon in southern Vietnam before continuing on for France.

In early 1889, carried out trials in Lorient to prepare for active service. As of 25 May, the ship had been assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, along with the unprotected cruisers , , and . In August, stopped in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during a period of political turmoil. The former Haitian president, François Denys Légitime, fled the country aboard , which took him to New York City. The ship remained on the station the following year, and the only change to the unit was the addition of the sloop . In March 1890, was sent to reinforce French forces fighting in the First Franco-Dahomean War. She arrived in Cotonou on 11 March, where was already anchored. The aviso joined them there on 16 March. Additional French forces continued to arrive, including , the cruiser , and the avisos , , and . The reinforcements solidified French control of the coastal enclaves and forced the Dahomeans to withdraw into the interior of the country. On 7 April, got underway to begin a blockade of communication between Grand-Popo and Ouidah, while the three avisos enforced the blockade to the west. The conflict ended in October with Dahomey agreeing to cede control of Cotonou to France and to recognize the French protectorate over Porto-Novo.

In 1891, was decommissioned for repairs that lasted most of the year; she returned to service for two months of trials that year. was eventually struck from the naval register on 2 February 1894. She was stationed in Lorient and used as a training ship for boiler room crews and as a repair hulk for the next four years. In 1898, she became the flagship of the harbor vessels in the port, and she continued to be used as a boiler training vessel. Beginning in 1905, she was converted into a barracks ship, a role she filled for the next seven years. The Navy ordered her to be placed for sale on 29 November 1912, and she was eventually sold on 6 October 1913.

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