French ironclad Bayard
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Bayard was the lead ship of the Bayard class of ironclad barbette ships built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and 1880s. Intended for service in the French colonial empire, she was designed as a "station ironclad", smaller versions of the first-rate vessels built for the main fleet. The Vauban 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 the other two aft on the centerline. Bayard was laid down in 1876 and was commissioned in 1882.
Bayard crossing the Suez Canal at Port Said while bringing the remains of Admiral Amédée Courbet back to France. Her spars are set diagonally, one mast perpendicular to another, as a sign of mourning.
Bayard during the Pescadores campaign in 1885
Sino-French War
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The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war.
Operations of the Sino-French War
Commandant Henri Rivière (1827–83)
European residents walk warily in the streets of Guangzhou, autumn 1883.
The capture of Sơn Tây, 16 December 1883