The only vessel of her class, D'Entrecasteaux was intended to serve as a flagship of the cruiser squadron that defended French Indochina and other possessions in the Far East.

D'Entrecasteaux was initially deployed to Indochina, where she took part in Eight-Nation Alliance operations during the Boxer Uprising, including the Battle of the Taku Forts in June 1900.

She was transferred for operations elsewhere after 1916, including supporting Arab rebels in the Red Sea and escorting convoys in the Indian Ocean.

After the war, D'Entrecasteaux helped to carry French troops back from the Armée d'Orient (Army of the East) before being placed in reserve in June 1919.

After briefly returning to France in 1926, she was sold to the Polish Navy in 1927, which renamed the vessel Król Władysław IV and then Bałtyk.

In the mid-1880s, elements in the French naval command argued over future warship construction; the Jeune École advocated building long-range and fast protected cruisers for use as commerce raiders on foreign stations while a traditionalist faction preferred larger armored cruisers and small fleet scouts, both of which were to operate as part of the main fleet in home waters.

[1][2] Design work on the ship began in 1891 with a version armed with four 240 mm (9.4 in) guns in the same lozenge arrangement as the contemporary pre-dreadnought battleships like Charles Martel.

In an attempt to keep displacement under the limit, the Conseil considered scaling down the level of armor protection or reducing the caliber or number of guns.

After further evaluation, the Conseil ship proposed by the architect Amable Lagane, of the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard, on 8 November.

Lockroy was replaced as naval minister in April 1896, and his successor, Armand Besnard, attempted to secure parliamentary approval for another D'Entrecasteaux-class cruiser, but the Chamber of Deputies refused, ending the project.

Her hull had a flush deck and a pronounced ram bow, and was sheathed in teak and a copper layer to protect it from biofouling on long voyages overseas.

[8][9] The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers.

Coal storage amounted to 960 long tons (980 t), which allowed D'Entrecasteaux to steam for 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Her semi-elliptical main battery turrets received the same level of protection on the front, but thinned at the sides and rear to 190 mm (7.5 in) with the same mild steel backing.

After departing on 6 April, she reached Saigon in French Indochina on 12 May, where she joined the protected cruisers Descartes, Pascal, and Jean Bart.

Rear Admiral de Courejolles hoisted his flag aboard D'Entrecasteaux on 1 June and she thereafter embarked on a long voyage around East Asia, sailing as far north as China.

The ship spent the next two in the region, taking cruises in Chinese and Japanese waters in 1901 and 1902 before returning to Toulon in 1903, being decommissioned there on 12 February for a major overhaul that lasted through 1905.

[20][22][24] After emerging from the shipyard, D'Entrecasteaux was recommissioned on 1 September 1905,[20] and sailed on 25 November 1905 for French Indochina, by way of a brief assignment to the Indian Ocean command.

D'Entrecasteaux served on the station for the next four years, and during this period, she was involved in the unsuccessful attempt to re-float the armored cruiser Chanzy on 20 May 1907, which had run aground off the coast of China.

[22] The French Navy considered converting D'Entrecasteaux into a training ship for naval cadets following her return home in 1909 to replace the armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, but the plan came to nothing.

[22] The ship was recommissioned on 1 January 1912 to serve as the flagship of the Training Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, replacing the old battleship Brennus in that role,[20] and flying the flag of Rear Admiral Bertrand Sourrieu.

[25] In early 1914, the navy considered using D'Entrecasteaux to replace Pothuau as a gunnery training vessel, but the changes had not been made by the outbreak of World War I in August.

[22] At the start of World War I in August 1914, D'Entrecasteaux was part of the Division spéciale, along with Pothuau and the old pre-dreadnought battleships Jauréguiberry and Charlemagne.

[26] D'Entrecasteaux was sent to Port Said at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal in January 1915 to reinforce the defenses there against an impending Ottoman attack.

During this period, on 31 January, French naval forces in the region were reorganized as the 3e Escadre (3rd Squadron) and D'Entrecasteaux became the flagship of now-Vice Admiral Dartige du Fournet.

She and the old coastal defense ship Requin played a critical role in defeating the Ottoman infantry in their assault on 3 February.

[30] Vice Admiral Frederic Moreau, the squadron commander by early 1916, opposed continuing patrols of the Syrian coast, as Ottoman maritime traffic had essentially stopped and he could not justify the expenditure of coal.

[31] After its conclusion, the ship was assigned to the Moroccan Naval Division, but on 14 September, the protected cruiser Lavoisier arrived in Tangier to relieve her.

[33] D'Entrecasteaux was sent to Durazzo and Cattaro on 25 January 1919 as part of the fleet that monitored the transfer of ex-Austro-Hungarian Navy ships to the victorious Allied powers.

[25] Her crew remained aboard to help defend Gdynia from German bombers before abandoning her on 11 September as she was a large target in the harbor.