From 1857, the French Navy started to envision a series of swift, unarmoured commerce raiders.

[1] In January 1871, she sailed to Halifax for a mission to secure fishing activities off Newfoundland, making a port call in New York from March to April 1871.

[1][2] In June 1883, she was appointed to the Tonkin division and sailed to the Far East by way of Algiers, Port Saïd and Suez, where she twice ran aground.

[2] The overall layout of Châteaurenault have been published in Alphonse Hauser's Cours de Construction navale (1886), volume 2, illustrated page 334, figure 1676.

A plan of the regulator, by Émile Bertin, has been published in Mémorial du Génie maritime, figure 858.

The complete plans of the ships are stored at the Service historique de la Marine.