&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Duguay-Trouin_(ship,_1879)_-_NH_34.jpg) Duguay-Trouin later in her career; note the gun shields fitted to the main and secondary guns
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duquesne class |
| Succeeded by | Lapérouse class |
| History | |
 France | |
| Name | Duguay-Trouin |
| Builder | Arsenal de Cherbourg |
| Laid down | 29 April 1873 |
| Launched | 31 March 1877 |
| Commissioned | 26 July 1878 |
| Renamed | Vétéran, 25 May 1900 |
| Stricken | 25 November 1899 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 12 September 1911 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 3,662 t (3,604 long tons; 4,037 short tons) |
| Length | 88 m (288 ft 9 in) lwl |
| Beam | 13.2 m (43 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 5.64 m (18 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Sail plan | Full ship rig |
| Speed | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Range | 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 311–322 |
| Armament |
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Duguay-Trouin was an unprotected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class. She was ordered as part of a naval construction program after the Franco-Prussian War, and was intended to counter enemy commerce raiders; as such she had a high top speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph), a heavy armament of five 194 mm (7.6 in) guns, and long cruising radius. Her design was based on the Duquesne-class cruisers, albeit reduced in size, and unlike the earlier vessels, she proved to be a reliable vessel in service.
The ship was sent to East Asia in 1884 to join the Far East Squadron under Amédée Courbet; she saw action later that year at the Battle of Fuzhou at the outset of the Sino-French War; there, she helped to sink three Chinese cruisers, and in company with the ironclad Triomphante, neutralized a series of Chinese coastal fortifications that blocked the French escape from Fuzhou. She next took part in the Keelung campaign on the island of Formosa, including the Battle of Tamsui in October 1884, but she missed the Battle of Shipu in February 1885 as she had run low on fuel. She fired the last French shots on Formosa on 3 April, shortly before the war ended.
Duguay-Trouin returned to France after the war, and was significantly modernized in the late 1880s. She briefly served in home waters before being sent abroad again in 1893. Over the rest of the 1890s, she alternated between the Pacific and Indochina stations, and she was sent to China again in 1898 in response to the Boxer Uprising. In 1899, she was struck from the naval register, renamed Vétéran, and converted into a depot ship to support a flotilla of torpedo boats defending French Indochina. She served in that capacity for a decade before being sold for scrap in 1911.