Tamsui River
On 1 October 1884, while the Formosa expeditionary corps went ashore at Keelung, Lespès lay off Tamsui with the ironclads "La Galissonnière" and "Triomphante", the cruiser "d'Estaing" and the gunboat "Vipère". His orders from Courbet were to bombard the Chinese forts at Tamsui, destroy the barrage across the Tamsui River and seize Tamsui itself.