French ironclad Bayard The Bayard was an early stationary battleship of the French Navy , lead ship of her class . " Bayard " had a wooden hull and a full rigging , as well as a side armour and steam machinery . Active service . " Bayard " was commissioned in May 1883 under the command of " capitaine de vaisseau " Parrayon as the flagship of Admiral Amédée Courbet , who had recently been appointed to the command of France ' s Trial division ( " division des essais " ) , established in April 1883 . On 31 May 1883 , in the wake of the defeat and death of Commandant Henri Rivière in Tonkin ( northern Vietnam ) at the Battle of Paper Bridge , Courbet was placed in command of a newly created Tonkin Coasts naval division . In early June Courbet left for the Far East with the ironclads " Bayard " and " Atalante " and the cruiser " Châteaurenault " . " Bayard " arrived in Along Bay on 10 July , and for the next eleven months served as flagship of the Tonkin Coasts naval division . In August 1883 , in the Battle of Thuan An , she bombarded the coastal defences of Hué , receiving minor shot damage from the Vietnamese shore batteries . From October 1883 to June 1884 , during the period of growing tension that preceded the outbreak of the Sino - French War ( August 1884 – April 1885 ) , she took part in a French naval blockade of the coast of Tonkin . On 30 November 1883 , in response to the threat of an imminent Vietnamese attack on the French post at Quang Yen , " Bayard " ' s landing company was hastily installed in the town ' s citadel , successfully deterring the threatened attack . In June 1884 " Bayard " became the flagship of the Far East Squadron , an exceptional naval grouping created for the war with China by the amalgamation of the Tonkin Coasts and Far East naval divisions . On 5 August 1884 sailors from " Bayard " took part in a French landing at Keelung , but were forced to re - embark on 6 August by a heavy Chinese counterattack . " Bayard " took no part in the Battle of Fuzhou ( 23 August 1884 ) , the opening battle of the Sino - French War , as she drew too much water to enter the Min River . Instead , she was left to guard the telegraph station at Sharp Peak near Matsu that allowed the squadron to communicate with France . On 1 October 1884 " Bayard " and several other French warships supported the French landing at Keelung with a naval bombardment of Chinese shore positions . On 8 October " Bayard " ' s landing company took part in the failed French landing at Tamsui , which condemned the Formosa expeditionary corps to a prolonged Keelung Campaign . From November 1884 to January 1885 " Bayard " took part in the French naval blockade of Formosa ( Taiwan ) . On 14 November 1884 , while anchored off Keelung and exposed to the northeast monsoon , she nearly foundered when her anchor chain snapped during a gale . In February 1885 five warships of China ' s Nanyang Fleet made a sortie from Shanghai in an attempt to break the French blockade of Formosa . Courbet sought them out with " Bayard " and several other ships of the Far East squadron , and trapped them in Shipu Bay . At the Battle of Shipu on the night of 14 February 1885 , two of " Bayard " ' s launches , used as improvised torpedo boats , attacked the Chinese squadron at anchor and disabled the frigate " Yuyuan " ( 馭遠 ) and the composite sloop " Chengqing " ( 澄慶 ) . In early March 1885 " Bayard " took part in the French blockade of Zhenhai , the outport of Ningbo . In late March she formed part of the French flotilla for the Pescadores Campaign , and her landing company was engaged ashore on 31 March in the decisive battle with the Chinese defenders of Makung . Admiral Amédée Courbet died on board " Bayard " in the harbour of Makung , in the Pescadores Islands , on 11 June 1885 . " Bayard " left the Pescadores on 23 June to return Courbet ' s body to France for a state funeral , arriving at Toulon on 26 August . She then proceeded to Brest to be disarmed and decommissioned . She was eventually used as a hulk from 1899 .