French cruiser Éclaireur

Éclaireur was a Rigault de Genouilly-class cruiser built in the 1870s for the French Navy; she was the second and final member of the class. The ships were intended to fill multiple roles, including as scouts for the French fleet, and to patrol the French colonial empire; as such, they were given a high top speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) and were optimized to use their sailing rig for long voyages abroad. They were armed with a main battery of eight 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns. Éclaireur was built between 1874 and 1878, but she was initially kept in reserve until 1881 for a deployment to patrol France's holdings in the Pacific Ocean. In 1884, she was sent to Southeast Asia to strengthen French naval forces during the Sino-French War, where she saw action at the Battle of Shipu in February 1885. Éclaireur spent the late 1880s and early 1890s in home waters before making another deployment to East Asia from 1897 to 1899. She was quickly recalled to Asia in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion in Qing China. The ship was struck from the naval register in 1902 and sold to ship breakers in 1904.