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58-576: In 1882 French interests in the Far East were protected by two naval divisions, the Cochinchina naval division (based at Saigon) and the Far East naval division (based at Yokohama). The Cochinchina naval division ( division navale de Cochinchine ) was responsible for monitoring coastal navigation between Singapore and the Hainan Strait and along the rivers of Cochinchina and Cambodia, while

116-837: A boiler exploded. Torpedo Boat No. 45, which had fought in the Battle of Fuzhou , was lost at sea on 21 March 1885 while sailing to Ningbo to join the French vessels blockading the mouth of the Yangzi River. Torpedo Boat No. 46, which had attacked and sunk the Chinese corvette Yangwu during the Battle of Fuzhou , was lost at sea off Makung on 30 April 1885, shortly after the end of the Sino-French War. Both torpedo boats were lost while under tow (by Châteaurenault and d'Estaing respectively), and on both occasions foundered after

174-568: A funeral service was said over them by Paul-François Puginier, the French apostolic vicar of Western Tonkin. Ten years earlier Puginier had performed a similar office over the body of Francis Garnier , who had died in remarkably similar circumstances. The remains were subsequently returned to France at the request of Rivière's family. They were finally buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre , in Paris . French ironclad Turenne Turenne

232-400: A preliminary peace agreement had already been signed on 4 April, so Turenne saw no action during the war. Over the course of the ship's tour abroad over the next five years, she cruised extensively through East Asia, visiting numerous foreign ports, and served as the flagship of the squadron. By 1889, the unit consisted of Turenne , the flagship, the old unprotected cruiser Villars ,

290-528: A strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Hung Hoa and other towns. The French minister to China, Frédéric Bourée, was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December 1882 he negotiated a deal with

348-405: A top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). To supplement the steam engines on long voyages overseas, she was fitted with a full-ship rig . Her main battery consisted of four 240 mm (9.4 in), 19- caliber guns mounted in individual barbette mounts, two forward placed abreast and two aft, both on the centerline . She carried a pair of 194 mm (7.6 in) guns, one in

406-685: The Escadre de l'Extrême-Orient (Far East Squadron) to reinforce the unit during the Sino-French War . The unprotected cruisers Magon , Roland , Primauguet , Limier , and Hugon , and several gunboats and smaller craft were sent along with Turenne . She departed Brest on 21 February and stopped in Algiers , French Algeria , on 3 March while en route. By 25 April, she had arrived on station in French Indochina , though

464-493: The Revue des deux mondes . At the end of 1881 Rivière was sent with a small French military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints against the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, he stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882 in a few hours, with the governor Hoàng Diệu committing suicide having sent a note of apology to the emperor. Although Rivière subsequently returned

522-553: The Battle of Shipu (14 February 1885), the so-called Battle of Zhenhai (1 March 1885), the Pescadores Campaign (March 1885) and the 'rice blockade' of the Yangtze River (March to June 1885). There were also a number of exploits by individual vessels. The light frigate Parseval , sent to Shanghai in the summer of 1884 to observe the movements of China's Southern Seas fleet, made a daring night escape under

580-492: The Battle of Shipu were minimal. Several sailors died of cholera during the four-month occupation of the Pescadores Islands following the Pescadores Campaign . Henri Rivi%C3%A8re (naval officer) Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–1883) was a French naval officer and a writer who is chiefly remembered today for advancing the French conquest of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam ) in the 1880s. Rivière's seizure of

638-574: The Cochin China naval division. The posting was generally regarded as a backwater that offered few opportunities for distinction. Rivière himself saw it as an opportunity to write a literary masterpiece that would procure him membership of the Académie française . Although Rivière spent most of his adult life as a naval officer, he was also ambitious for literary distinction. He was a journalist for La Liberté , and also had articles published in

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696-932: The aviso Chasseur , and the gunboats Vipère and Aspic . Turenne embarked on her final such tour on 14 August 1889 in company with Vipère , stopping in Chefoo , China, and then Nagasaki , Japan, by 13 September. On 14 November, she visited Kobe , Japan, before returning to Chinese waters. Turenne met Chasseur in Hong Kong on 9 December. Five days later, the two ships departed to return to French Indochina, stopping first in Along Bay on 17 December and then proceeding to Saigon on 4 January 1890. They arrived there four days later and immediately began preparations for Turenne to return to France. She departed on 30 January, stopping in Singapore , Colombo , and Aden on

754-450: The bow and one in the stern as chase guns . These guns were supported by a secondary battery of six 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns carried in a central battery located amidships in the hull, three guns per broadside . For defense against torpedo boats , she carried four 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss revolver cannon and twelve 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder Hotchkiss revolvers, all in individual mounts. The ship

812-583: The reserve fleet for about a decade before being sold for scrap in 1901. The Bayard class of barbette ships was designed in the late 1870s as part of a naval construction program that began under the post- Franco-Prussian War fleet plan of 1872. At the time, the French Navy categorized its capital ships as high-seas ships for the main fleet, station ironclads for use in the French colonial empire , and smaller coastal defense ships . The Bayard class

870-473: The Black Flag stronghold of Phu Hoai. On 18 September 1883, acting on information received from Vietnamese informants, the French scouted the area with two battalions of marine infantry. Rivière's severed head and hands, buried in a lacquered box, were discovered in the village of Kien Mai, and three weeks later the mutilated body of a European, dressed in naval uniform, was found close to Paper Bridge, near

928-461: The Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence. The Vietnamese were not consulted by either party to these negotiations. Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, and in early 1883 decided to force the issue. He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France, giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to

986-663: The Crimean campaign (1854–56), serving on the vessels Uranie , Suffren , Bourrasque and Montebello . Promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau in November 1856, he served aboard Reine Hortense during the Franco-Austrian War (1859). In 1866 he took part in the Mexican campaign aboard Rhône and Brandon . He was promoted to the rank of capitaine de frégate in June 1870 and served as second officer on

1044-584: The Far East naval division ( division navale de l'Extrême-Orient ) policed the China Coast and the seas around China and Japan. Henri Rivière 's intervention in Tonkin in April 1882 was made with vessels of the Cochinchina naval division. As France increased its commitment in Tonkin after Rivière's defeat and death at the Battle of Paper Bridge , a naval division was created at the end of May 1883 to patrol

1102-579: The French commandant supérieur in Tonkin. The Far East squadron was formally constituted on 27 June 1884, in response to the news of the Bắc Lệ ambush , by the amalgamation of the Tonkin Coasts naval division and the Far East naval division. The Tonkin Coasts naval division, under the command of Admiral Amédée Courbet since July 1883, consisted of the ironclads Bayard (the flagship) and Atalante ,

1160-514: The French rearguard. Several French officers were wounded at this critical moment, and in the confusion of the retreat Rivière's body was abandoned on the battlefield. He was immediately presumed dead by his fellow officers. If he had not already died from the effects of his wound, he would have been killed as soon as the Black Flags discovered who he was. Although the Battle of Paper Bridge

1218-515: The French to battle in a taunting message on placards that were widely distributed on the walls of Hanoi. On 19 May Rivière marched out of Hanoi to attack the Black Flags. His small force (around 450 men) advanced without proper precautions, and blundered into a well-prepared Black Flag ambush at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a few miles to the west of Hanoi. In the Battle of Paper Bridge the French were enveloped on both wings, and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Towards

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1276-506: The Gulf of Tonkin. Command of this new Tonkin Coasts naval division ( division navale des côtes du Tonkin ) was given to Admiral Amédée Courbet . A Tonkin Flotilla ( flotille de Tonkin ), consisting of a number of despatch vessels and gunboats, was also created for inland operations in the summer of 1883, and placed under the command of général de brigade Alexandre-Eugène Bouët (1833–87),

1334-688: The Pacific station, and Rigault de Genouilly to the Levant station. A little later Atalante left to decommission in Saigon, Nielly joined the Indian Ocean station and La Clocheterie , Lutin and Comète left for Tonkin to join General de Courcy's command. The Far East squadron was engaged on several occasions during the Sino-French War. The ironclad La Galissonnière , the cruiser Villars and

1392-498: The Tonkin flotilla, was also transferred to the Far East squadron at this period. In April 1885 the squadron was reinforced by a third naval division, sent out from France in January 1885 under the command of Admiral Adrien-Barthélémy-Louis Rieunier . Rieunier's division consisted of the ironclad Turenne (his flagship), the cruisers Magon , Primauguet and Roland , and the gunboats Comète and Sagittaire . The division

1450-541: The Vietnamese government, and ended a remarkable series of French victories against the Vietnamese by defeating Garnier's small French force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in this battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a tributary of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent

1508-449: The battlefield of Paper Bridge. Liu Yongfu had offered a substantial bounty for the heads of French officers, graded according to their rank, and it seems likely that a Black Flag soldier had killed the wounded French commander and then decapitated him in order to claim the bounty, cutting off his hands so that his rank could be verified by the number of bands ( galons ) on his tunic cuffs. Rivière's remains were brought back to Hanoi, where

1566-675: The citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and Dai Nam (as Vietnam was known then) that culminated one year later in the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886). Born in Paris on 12 July 1827, Rivière entered the École Navale in October 1842. He passed out as a midshipman (second class) in August 1845, and saw his first naval service in the Pacific Ocean on Brillante . In February 1847 he

1624-624: The citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese government, unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army, enlisted the help of Liu Yongfu , whose well-trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers were to prove a thorn in the side of the French. The Black Flags had already inflicted one humiliating defeat on a French force commanded by lieutenant de vaisseau Francis Garnier in 1873. Like Rivière in 1882, Garnier had exceeded his instructions and attempted to intervene militarily in northern Vietnam. Liu Yongfu had been called in by

1682-467: The coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Dinh with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Dinh the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, but they were repulsed by chef de bataillon Berthe de Villers in the Battle of Gia Cuc on 28 March. Rivière was jubilant: 'This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question!' Rivière's timing

1740-418: The command of Admiral Lespès, with Rieunier second in command, consisted of the ironclads La Galissonnière (the flagship), Turenne and Triomphante , the cruisers Lapérouse , Primauguet , Champlain and Roland , and the gunboats Vipère and Sagittaire . The other ships returned to France, or were transferred to Tonkin, or were sent to the various stations of the French fleet around the globe: Around

1798-446: The cruiser Châteaurenault , the light frigates Hamelin and Parseval , the gunboats Lynx , Vipère and Aspic , the troopships Drac and Saône and Torpedo Boats Nos. 45 and 46. The Far East naval division, under the command of Admiral Sébastien Lespès since March 1884, consisted of the ironclads La Galissonnière (the flagship) and Triomphante , the cruisers d'Estaing , Duguay-Trouin , Villars , and Volta , and

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1856-403: The despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin. Rivière's adventure in Tonkin set in train a course of events that, within a few years, saw French rule extended beyond Cochinchina to the whole of Indochina. The French had been forced to leave Rivière's body on the battlefield of Paper Bridge, and for several months were unsure of the precise circumstances of his death. After being shot in

1914-467: The end of June each day saw the departure of one of our ships. D’Estaing and Kerguelen were the first to leave, towing Torpedo Boats Nos. 50 and 44 as far as Saigon, then continuing on to France. Villars and Éclaireur followed them, while Château-Yquem conveyed troops, artillery and mules to Along Bay. Then Annamite left, to repatriate the sick. Duguay-Trouin and Châteaurenault went next, to return to France. Magon and Fabert went back to

1972-526: The end of the Sino-French War, the squadron consisted of the following vessels: Admiral Courbet died aboard his flagship Bayard in Magong harbour in the Pescadores on 11 June 1885, and was briefly succeeded in command of the squadron by Admiral Sébastien Lespès . On 25 July 1885 the French government reconstituted the traditional Far East naval division at close to its 1883 strength. The division, under

2030-423: The end of the battle a French cannon overturned with the shock of its recoil, and Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it. The Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men, killing one French officer and seriously wounding Rivière in the shoulder. Several seconds later, Rivière collapsed. Seeing the French line in confusion, the Black Flags surged forward and drove back

2088-401: The gunboat Lutin . The new squadron was placed under Courbet's command, with Lespès second in command. In October 1884 the squadron was joined by the cruisers Rigault de Genouilly from the Levant station, Nielly from the Indian Ocean station and Champlain . At the end of November 1884 a fourth cruiser, Éclaireur , arrived from the Pacific station. In January 1885 the squadron

2146-425: The gunboat Lutin took part in the bombardment of Keelung on 5 August 1884, directed by Rear Admiral Lespès. The landing force put ashore by Lespès on the afternoon of 5 August to occupy Keelung consisted of the landing companies of Bayard and Villars , under the respective commands of capitaine de frégate Martin and lieutenant de vaisseau Jacquemier. Both companies were attacked by superior Chinese forces on

2204-618: The guns of the Wusong forts in September 1884. None of the squadron's vessels were lost in battle, but there were several losses from other causes. The light frigate Hamelin ( capitaine de frégate Roustan) stranded in the Min River in July 1884 and had to return to France for repairs. Thirteen sailors were scalded to death aboard the cruiser Rigault de Genouilly on 15 November 1884 when

2262-544: The hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection. In April 1883, realising that the Vietnamese were incapable of resisting the French effectively, the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Jingsong ( Tang Jingsong , 唐景崧) persuaded Liu Yongfu to take the field against Rivière with the Black Flag Army . On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged

2320-549: The ironclad corvette Thétis with the French Baltic Squadron during the Franco-Prussian War . He saw no active service in any of these campaigns. Rivière's role in the suppression of a revolt in the French colony of New Caledonia in the late 1870s won him promotion to the coveted rank of capitaine de vaisseau in January 1880. In November 1881 Rivière was posted to Saigon , as commander of

2378-476: The morning of 6 August, and had to make a fighting withdrawal to the coast, where they were re-embarked. French casualties in this operation were 2 dead and 11 wounded. Other ships were involved in the Battle of Fuzhou (23 August 1884), various operations in the Keelung Campaign , including landings at Keelung and Tamsui (1 to 8 October 1884), the blockade of Formosa (October 1884 to April 1885),

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2436-445: The other two aft on the centerline . Turenne was laid down in 1877 and was commissioned in 1882. She was sent to East Asia in early 1885 during the Sino-French War , but the conflict had ended by the time she arrived in the area. Turenne served as the flagship of the French squadron in the region for the next five years before returning to France in early 1890. The ship saw little active service in home waters, and remained in

2494-440: The ship, along with the other station ironclads still in the French inventory, was "practically condemned" and would "shortly be struck off the list". She nevertheless remained in the navy's inventory as part of the second category of reserve, along with several old coastal defense ships and unprotected cruisers. They were retained in a state that allowed them to be mobilized in the event of a major war. The French government struck

2552-448: The shoulder Rivière had fallen, then risen to his feet, then collapsed again. His recumbent body had been last seen surrounded by a knot of Black Flag soldiers. Most of Rivière's fellow officers naturally assumed that he had been either shot or stabbed to death on the battlefield there and then, but many Vietnamese believed that he had been taken alive by the Black Flags. According to a Vietnamese soldier who claimed to have been present at

2610-408: The spot where Rivière had fallen on 19 May. The body had been gashed with sword slashes, the head and the hands were missing, and the sleeves of the naval tunic had been cut away to remove the marks of rank. Several French naval officers who knew Rivière well were able to confirm that the body was indeed his. These circumstances strongly suggested that Rivière had been killed in the heat of battle, on

2668-402: The time, Rivière had been brought into Liu Yongfu's presence shortly after the battle ended and had been beheaded on the orders of the Black Flag leader, one of whose close friends had been killed by the French during the battle. Neither version of his death could be confirmed. Several weeks after the battle the French heard rumours that Rivière's body had been savagely mutilated and buried near

2726-402: The towing rope snapped. There were no casualties in either incident. The battle losses of the ships' crews and the squadron's landing companies were moderate. The squadron suffered minor losses in the Battle of Fuzhou and the subsequent descent of the Min River, and rather heavier casualties on 8 October 1884 in the failed landing at Tamsui during the Keelung Campaign . French casualties in

2784-635: The way. She reached the Suez Canal on 2 March, and after entering the Mediterranean Sea , stopped in Toulon , France, on 13 March. After staying there a week, she left for Cherbourg . She thereafter was placed in the second category of reserve, where she spent the next five years. The ship took part in a training exercise for naval reservists in mid-1891; around 3,700 men were called up to take part in familiarization training and Turenne

2842-405: Was a serious defeat for the French, it strengthened the resolve of Jules Ferry 's administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. The news of Rivière's defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May, and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared 'France will avenge her glorious children!' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance

2900-443: Was accompanied by two more torpedo boats, Nos. 44 and 45, and by the 'auxiliary cruiser' Château-Yquem , a civilian vessel leased and armed by the French government for the duration of hostilities with China. Rieunier's division reached Far Eastern waters too late to take part in active naval operations, but some of its ships took part in the continuing French blockade of the Yangzi River between April and June 1885. In April 1885, at

2958-454: Was activated to participate, along with the coastal defense ships Vengeur , Tonnerre , and Tonnant . They did not participate in formal maneuvers, and each vessel went to sea individually to train their crews. Turenne was placed in commission for special service in 1894, along with the unprotected cruiser Éclaireur , the aviso Voltigeur , and the gunboat Lèzard . In 1896, the contemporary journal The Naval Annual noted that

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3016-563: Was an ironclad barbette ship of the French Navy built in the 1870s and 1890s; she was the second and final member of the Bayard class . Intended for service in the French colonial empire , she was designed as a "station ironclad", which were smaller versions of the first-rate vessels built for the main fleet. The Bayard class was a scaled down variant of Amiral Duperré . They carried their main battery of four 240 mm (9.4 in) guns in open barbettes , two forward side-by-side and

3074-418: Was completed in 1881, when she began sea trials that continued into the following year. She was commissioned on 4 February 1882. She was thereafter placed in reserve , remaining there for the next two years. The ship was recommissioned for active service in 1884. On 16 February 1884, Turenne was involved in experiments with marine gyroscopes at Brest . The ship was deployed overseas in 1885 to join

3132-663: Was intended to serve in the second role, and they were based on the high-seas ironclad Amiral Duperré , albeit a scaled-down version. Turenne was 81.22 m (266 ft 6 in) long at the waterline , with a beam of 17.45 m (57 ft) and a draft of 7.49 m (24 ft 7 in). She displaced 6,363  t (6,263 long tons ; 7,014 short tons ). The crew numbered 20 officers and 430 enlisted men. Her propulsion machinery consisted of two compound steam engines with steam provided by eight coal-burning fire-tube boilers . Her engines were rated to produce 4,000 indicated horsepower (3,000  kW ) for

3190-413: Was joined by the cruisers Duchaffault from New Caledonia and Lapérouse from France. Around the end of March 1885 the cruiser Kerguelen , transferred from the Pacific station, joined the squadron. French naval forces in Tonkin were strongly reinforced in the spring of 1885 by the cruisers Fabert and La Clocheterie , and the seagoing gunboat Jaguar , previously based at Along Bay as part of

3248-490: Was perfect. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Dinh , but instead he found himself the hero of the hour. There had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry was strongly in favour of colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière up. Ferry and his foreign minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourée's agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled

3306-589: Was posted to the South Seas naval division , to Virginie . He was promoted to midshipman (first class) in September 1847 and to enseigne de vaisseau in September 1849. During the next five years he served in the Mediterranean squadron aboard Iéna (1850), Labrador (1851) and Jupiter (1852–54). Significantly, his confidential reports from this period mentioned that he seemed to be unduly interested in poetry and literature. Rivière took part in

3364-496: Was protected with wrought iron armor; her belt was 150 to 250 mm (5.9 to 9.8 in) thick and extended for the entire length of the hull . The barbettes for the main battery were 200 mm (7.9 in) thick, and her main deck was 50 mm (2 in) thick. Construction of Turenne began with her keel laying on 1 March 1877 in Lorient ; her completed hull was launched on 16 October 1879, and fitting out work

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