The French Far East Squadron () was an exceptional naval grouping created for the duration of the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885).
Background
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 () was responsible for monitoring coastal navigation between Singapore and the Hainan Strait and along the rivers of Cochinchina and Cambodia, while the Far East naval division () 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 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), the French commandant supérieur in Tonkin.
Composition
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 (the flagship) and , the cruiser , 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 (the flagship) and , the cruisers , , , and , and the gunboat . The new squadron was placed under Courbet's command, with Lespès second in command.
In October 1884 the squadron was joined by the cruisers from the Levant station, from the Indian Ocean station and . At the end of November 1884 a fourth cruiser, , arrived from the Pacific station. In January 1885 the squadron was joined by the cruisers from New Caledonia and from France. Around the end of March 1885 the cruiser , transferred from the Pacific station, joined the squadron. French naval forces in Tonkin were strongly reinforced in the spring of 1885 by the cruisers and , and the seagoing gunboat Jaguar, previously based at Along Bay as part of 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 (his flagship), the cruisers , and , and the gunboats Comète and Sagittaire. The division 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 the end of the Sino-French War, the squadron consisted of the following vessels:
Ironclads: Bayard, La Galissonnière, Turenne, Triomphante, Atalante
Cruisers (1st Class): Duguay-Trouin, Villars, d'Estaing, Lapérouse, Nielly, Magon, Primauguet, Roland Cruisers (2nd Class): Champlain, Châteaurenault, Éclaireur, Rigault de Genouilly Cruisers (3rd Class): Kerguelen, Volta, Duchaffault Avisos-transports: Saône Gunboats: Lutin, Vipère, Lynx, Comète, Sagittaire, Aspic, Jaguar Transports (1st Class): Annamite, Tonkin Auxiliary Cruisers: Château-Yquem Torpedo Boats (2nd Class): Nos. 44, 45, 46 and 50.