The
French Navy placed an order for the ship based on Vésigniés design on 1 October 1856. The ship was built at the
Cherboug Dockyard under the supervision of Vésignié, Nathaniel Villaret and Adrien Joyeux. The
keel was
laid down on 9 October 1856 and the vessel was
launched on 28 March 1861. The machinery was ordered from
Indret in March 1858 and installation was completed in December 1861.
Dupleix, named for the 18th century governor of
Pondichéry and governor general of the French possessions in India,
Marquess Joseph François Dupleix, was
commissioned on 13 June 1861. After her commissioning,
Dupleix was sent to the
Chinese Sea under Vice-Admiral Jaures. She arrived in
Saigon on 25 August 1862, and made short stops in
Ryukyu Islands and the port of
Hakodate on the island of
Hokkaidō, before arriving in
Yokohama.
Bombardment of Shimonoseki During the
bombardment of Shimonoseki (5 September 1864),
Dupleix was second in the line of corvettes, between the British and the Dutch
Metallkruz. She fired 411 shots and received 22 cannonballs (seven in the hull, four under the
waterline, and 11 in the sails). She had two killed and eight wounded. On 28 December 1864,
Dupleix sailed back to France, where she was
decommissioned on 25 June 1865. She was re-commissioned in Cherbourg in 1867, and sent back to serve in the "Far-East Naval Division", under Counter-Admiral
Gustave Ohier. She arrived in Yokohama in February 1868, and was immediately involved in the events of the
Japanese Revolution.
Sakai incident , Japan (堺事件),
Le Monde Illustré, 1868. On 8 March 1868, a
skiff sent to
Sakai was attacked by
samurai retainers of the
daimyō of
Tosa; twelve sailors were killed. The captain,
Abel-Nicolas Bergasse du Petit-Thouars, protested so strongly that the culprits were arrested, and 20 of them were sentenced to death by
seppuku. However, the execution style was so shocking to the French that after 11 were carried out, the French captain requested grace for the survivors. This allowed the French and Japanese parties to reconcile, and is now known as the "
Sakai incident", or
Sakai Jiken (堺事件). On 16 April 1868,
Dupleix was the first Western ship to salute the Japanese emperor at
Fort Tempozan. In October of the same year,
Dupleix was sent to Hokkaidō. She rescued the British corvette , which was shipwrecked at
Romanzoff Bay, in
La Pérouse Strait.
Hokkaidō and final years Relieved by the
aviso ,
Dupleix was stationed in the northern port of Hakodate during the
Battle of Hakodate, in order to guarantee French interests there. She brought back Captain
Jules Brunet and his companions from Hakodate to Yokohama after the fall of the
Republic of Ezo. From July 1870 to February 1871,
Dupleix blockaded the German frigate in
Nagasaki as part of operations during the
Franco-Prussian War. In March,
Dupleix sailed back to
Cherbourg to be decommissioned. From 1876 to 1886,
Dupleix was re-armed every year from March to October to monitor fishery operations in
Iceland. She was struck from the French naval list on 2 July 1887 at Cherbourg. The vessel was
broken up in 1890. ==Notes==