was the lead ship of the of unprotected cruisers built for the French Navy in the late 1860s. The French initially attempted to mount a gun aboard the ship to improve their shore bombardment capability. Such a large gun proved to be too heavy, and it was instead replaced with a gun. The ship spent much of her existence out of service, being activated for three major overseas deployments, the first two to East Asia from 1871 to 1874 and the second from 1877 to 1879. battled Chinese pirates off the coast of Tonkin during the first deployment in 1872, her only major combat operation. The third voyage, from 1886 to 1887, took the ship to the Pacific station. The ship was struck from the naval register in 1889 and hulked; she was used to store coal until 1914, and then used as a barracks ship from 1920 to 1922. was placed for sale in 1929, but her ultimate fate is unknown.

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.

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 straight stem. 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.

was completed with an armament that consisted of one rifled gun and two M1864 guns, but shortly after she entered service in 1869, her armament was revised to the 194 mm gun and three guns. By 1871, her 194 mm gun had been replaced with a 164 mm gun, the former having been deemed to be too heavy. The ship's weaponry was changed again in the mid-1870s, which then consisted of the 164 mm gun and five guns. In the 1880s, the 164 mm gun was also replaced with a 138 mm gun, and at least two Hotchkiss revolver cannon were added.

Service history was laid down at the shipyard in Nantes on 19 November 1867. Her completed hull was launched on 29 May 1869, and was commissioned in a limited capacity just a few days later, on 1 June, to begin sea trials. These were completed by July 1870, when she was placed in full commission. Following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War that month, was sent into the Baltic Sea with other French warships. She stopped in Aarhus, Denmark, on 23 August, and by 30 August, she had moved north to Frederikshavn, Denmark. She was joined there by the ironclad warships and that day. had moved to the Danish capital at Copenhagen the following month, and on 16 September, she sailed to Helsingfors, Russia.

Deployment to Asia, 1871–1874

In early 1871, she departed for Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea, arriving there on 23 March. She was decommissioned there on 4 April, but she soon returned to service, being recommissioned on 2 October. soon departed for East Asian waters to protect French interests in the region, particularly in Cochinchina. On 23 January 1872, sailed from Saigon to conduct a survey of the Gulf of Tonkin, stopping to visit Tourane on the way. She later stopped in Haiphong, where her commander, (frigate captain) Vincent-François-Émilien Senez, traveled up the Cấm River aboard one of the ship's launches. During this period, while surveying Cát Bà Island in February, found several pirate junks, which fled to the safety of a harbor on the island. managed to capture one of the vessels and drive another ashore before they escaped. In July, embarked Norodom, the king of Cambodia, for a tour of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton in China and Manila in the Spanish Philippines.

In October 1872, was ordered to Haiphong, and on the way from Saigon, she encountered several local pirate junks, which she destroyed in three actions over the span of a week. The first battle took place on 21 October, she was attacked by two junks, but soon forced the crew of one junk to abandon their vessel and then sank the second pirate ship. The action lasted about two hours, and received several damaging hits to her hull and rigging, and two men were wounded; the French killed some 300 pirates between the two junks. On 27 October, found a small pirate flotilla of four junks. Upon sighting the French cruiser, the junks divided into pairs to attack . In the span of 15 minutes, she sank the first pair of junks. The French then turned their attention to the other pair, which they severely damaged. The junks ran themselves aground to avoid sinking, so sent men ashore to seize them. One junk was burned on the shore and the other was dragged into deep water, where it was scuttled. remained there overnight, and the next day another pirate junk arrived, mistakenly interpreting the burning ship to be a signal to join the battle. sank that ship as well. In the actions on 27 and 28 October, a further four men were wounded, and received more damage to her hull and rigging. Some 500 pirates were killed between the three battles, and 100 cannon were either captured or sunk. Senez was later promoted to the rank of (ship-of-the-line captain) for his actions during the fighting.

The ship nevertheless continued her voyage and arrived at the mouth of the Cấm River on 9 November. She was sent there to protect a commercial arms shipment to a Chinese garrison in neighboring Yunnan, which traveled upriver to Hanoi and then up the Red River. While waited for the traders to complete their voyage from Hong Kong, Senez traveled to Hanoi to survey the branches of the river in the area. The traders arrived by 18 November and began the voyage upriver, at which point was no longer needed. She departed two days later.

By early 1874, the French naval forces in the region consisted of the ironclad , , the screw corvette , and a gunboat, though all of these ships were replaced over the course of 1874, being relieved by the corvette . After arriving back in France, was decommissioned on 16 October 1874.

Later career next returned to service on 10 February 1877 for another deployment to Cochinchina. As of 1878, the unit consisted of the stationary flagship , the cruiser , the aviso , and eight gunboats. s assignment to Indochina lasted until 1879. The ship remained out of service for the next decade, seeing little activity beyond periodic refits and alterations to her armament in the 1880s. In 1886, she was activated for a deployment to the Pacific station, which also included the cruisers , , , and . By 1887, had returned home to be decommissioned.

She was eventually struck from the naval register on 27 June 1889 and reduced to a hulk in Lorient. She remained in that role into 1890, when she was converted into a coal storage hulk. She remained in use until 1914. In 1920, was converted into a barracks ship, but served in that capacity for just two years, when she was hulked again. She was eventually placed for sale on 10 July 1929. The details of her disposal are unrecorded.

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