was an unprotected cruiser of the built for the French Navy in the late 1860s. The ship was armed with a gun battery that was heavy for a vessel of her small size, which was intended to give her good shore bombardment capabilities. She carried a single gun and five guns all on the upper deck. was sent on a major cruise abroad to the Pacific Ocean from 1877 to 1880, during which she participated in the suppression of the 1878 Kanak revolt in New Caledonia. Her next foreign deployment began in 1883 with the First Madagascar expedition, which sought to enforce French colonial claims on the island. took part in heavy fighting around the island, bombarding enemy positions and sending landing parties ashore to seize coastal towns. The ship remained off Madagascar until 1891, by which time she had returned to France. She was sent abroad a third time in 1894, first to the South Atlantic, though she was transferred to French Indochina the following year. After being recalled home in 1896, she was struck from the naval register and used to store coal in Corsica until 1909; she was then placed for sale, but the details of her disposal are 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.

Being one of the later members of the class, entered service by the time much of the experimentation in armament arrangements had already been settled. Thus, unlike the earlier ships that attempted to mount a gun that was found to be too heavy, she was completed with an armament of a single gun and five guns. In the 1880s, the 164 mm gun was replaced with a 138 mm gun, and at least two Hotchkiss revolver cannon were added.

Service history Work on began on 19 November 1867 with her keel laying at the shipyard in Brest, France. Her launching took place on 4 July 1872, after which fitting out commenced. She was commissioned for sea trials on 18 November 1874, which were completed by March 1875. was placed in reserve on 1 March. The ship remained out of service for the next two years. During this period, tests on purifying water from the ship's boilers were carried out aboard . It was found that using a mild limewater solution removed sediment from the boilers and produced potable water.

Pacific cruise, 1877–1880 was recommissioned on 12 October 1877. She was sent on a major cruise aboard to patrol the Pacific and New Caledonia stations. By 1878, the ships assigned to the station also included the old screw frigate , which was the flagship of the squadron, and the cruisers , , and . At that time, (ship-of-the-line captain) Frédéric des Essarts served as the ship's commander. On 22 March, left Nouméa to visit Australia. While on the way on 30 March, she encountered the French transport ship , which was carrying a load of silver to Nouméa. took the silver aboard to complete the delivery to Nouméa. She cruised along the coast of Australia, but did not stop to visit any ports. She arrived back in Nouméa on 8 April and was found to have suffered significant strain on the hull owing to the heavy seas, which required her deck to be recaulked.

In June, the Kanaks on New Caledonia revolted against French rule. was at that time in Nouméa, having come to relieve the aviso . After receiving news of the rebellion, was sent with a company of infantry to reinforce the local forces, arriving at the mouth of the Diahot River by early July. At that time, the French flotilla in the area also included a pair of armed transports, two schooners, and two small gunboats, in addition to . sent a contingent of 50 men ashore at Canala and another 50 at Houaïlou, before sailing back to Diahot, where she sent a landing party of her own crew ashore to guard a small settlement. Additional forces arrived from the Pacific station and French Cochinchina and soon suppressed the rebellion. During these operations, sailed to Oubatche, where her captain intervened after a Kanak attack on a home; he convinced the local chief to deescalate the situation.

Over the course of 1878–1879, conducted experiments with coal that had been mined from the areas around Yahoué and Teremba Bay on New Caledonia, but the French found the coal to be poor quality and unusable in steam engines. These replicated previous tests carried out by the aviso in 1875. The deployment the Pacific lasted through 1880, when she was relieved by the cruiser , allowing to return to France.

Madagascar campaign

In 1882, the French government decided to seize the island of Madagascar as a colony, and in early 1883 the French sent Admiral aboard to take command of a squadron that had been assembled off the island. The squadron also included the cruisers and , the screw frigate , the aviso , and the gunboat . On 7 May, Pierre sent to Tamatave while he took the rest of his squadron to the Ampasindava Peninsula, where he started the First Madagascar expedition by bombarding government positions there. Pierre took the rest of the squadron to join at Tamatave, where on 1 June he issued an ultimatum, which the Merina government rejected on 9 June. The next day, the French consul in Tamatave boarded , after which Pierre ordered a bombardment of the city. The ships opened fire at around 06:30 and set fire to the town, and after thirty minutes, slowed their fire to one shell every five minutes. After 08:15, the rate of fire was slowed further to one shot per hour, as the government forces had withdrawn to a camp about three miles from shore.

A landing party of about 500 was put ashore at Tamatave to secure the city, which soon became besieged by Merina forces. The French squadron then dispersed to attack other targets. and cruised to the north, bombarding Merina positions at Foulepointe, Mahambo, and Fenoarivo on 12 June. Over the following months, the ships assisted in the defense of Tamatave, including sending artillery ashore. On 12 November, and sailed to Port Choiseul, which they quickly captured. In April 1884, Rear Admiral arrived aboard the cruiser to take charge of the operations around Madagascar. He immediately instituted a blockade of the island, though he lacked enough ships to control the coastline. Miot divided his squadron into two divisions, and assigned to the east coast division, along with , , the gunboat , and two support vessels.

Fighting continued on the island through 1884 and 1885, though was not involved in any major operations for most of this period, as Miot sought to gather support from local rulers opposed to the Merina. On 27 November, led an assault on the town of Amboanio, which held a fort that was part of the main defenses of the city of Vohemar. The cruiser opened a bombardment that quickly drove the defenders from the fortress, and then she sent a landing party to take possession of the fort. lay in the roadstead for several days to provide fire support. On 5 December, additional men went ashore, including a detachment of sailors from , to pursue the Merina forces that had fled from the initial bombardment. The French, with local support, defeated the Merina forces in a pitched battle, inflicting very heavy casualties on the Merina. On 8 January 1885, Miot appointed Captain Escond, the captain of , as the local commander of the forces defending Vohemar. In late 1885, joined an expedition to Diego-Suarez in company with the transports and . The French captured the town and nearby Vohimaro without any resistance. A peace treaty was finally signed on 17 December 1885.

Later career As of 25 May 1889, was operating on the Madagascar station, the sole vessel assigned to the island. She was supported by the cruiser and the avisos and , which were assigned to the Indian Ocean station. By 1891, had returned to France, where she remained in commission, but was not assigned to any particular unit.

In April 1894, was recommissioned to join the Atlantic Division, where she replaced her sister ship . At that time, the unit also included the unprotected cruisers and and the aviso . was transferred to French Indochina later that year. The ship made the voyage from Libreville in French Equatorial Africa to Saigon in French Indochina by way of Cape Town, steaming some in 61 days. She arrived off Cape Saint Jacques, just outside Saigon, on 26 October. She remained in French Indochina in 1895, and at that time, the squadron there also included ironclad , the squadron flagship, the protected cruisers and , and . In the immediate aftermath of the Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in May 1895, the French sent , , and up the Yangtze River to Nanking to demand that previous agreements regarding protection of French missionaries in the country be enforced. The ships arrived in the city on 29 June, but later that day, received orders via telegram to depart immediately for Callao, Peru. She got underway the following morning.

In May 1896, the new aviso was commissioned to replace . After returning home later that year, was struck from the naval register on 11 December. She was used as a coal storage hulk in Corsica from 1898 to 1909, when she was placed for sale. The details of her disposal are unrecorded.

Notes

References