 Nielly in port, date unknown
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Nielly |
| Namesake | Joseph-Marie Nielly |
| Builder | Arsenal de Brest |
| Laid down | 16 August 1876 |
| Launched | 25 May 1880 |
| Commissioned | 1 January 1881 |
| Stricken | 18 January 1902 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 1902 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Lapérouse-class cruiser |
| Displacement | 2,320 t (2,280 long tons) |
| Length | 79.5 m (260 ft 10 in) lwl |
| Beam | 11.4 m (37 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Sail plan | Full ship rig |
| Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Range | 4,980 nmi (9,220 km; 5,730 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 264 |
| Armament |
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Nielly was an unprotected cruiser of the Lapérouse class built for the French Navy in the 1870s and 1880s. The ship was intended to serve abroad in the French colonial empire, and was ordered to strengthen the fleet after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. To allow the ship to cruise for long distances, she was fitted with a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine, and she carried a main battery of fifteen 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns. Her top speed under steam was 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).
Following the start of the Sino-French War in August 1884, Nielly was mobilized to strengthen the French Far East Squadron under Amédée Courbet. After arriving in late 1884, she joined the blockade of Formosa. In January 1885, Courbet took a group of ships, including Nielly, to search for elements of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet, which were reported to be steaming to attack the blockade force. During the Battle of Shipu, Nielly and the other vessels failed to catch the faster Chinese cruisers, but trapped a pair of smaller vessels Shipu, which were later sunk by French launches armed with spar torpedoes. After the war ended later that year, Nielly shifted to the Indian Ocean, where she was present for the final stage of the First Madagascar expedition, which secured a protectorate over the island. She joined the Atlantic squadron in the early 1890s, and by 1899, she had returned to Madagascar, before returning to France in 1901. She was ultimately sold to ship breakers the following year.