She was named to honour Abraham Duquesne, Marquis du Bouchet (c. 1610 – 1688) who distinguished himself during the Third Dutch War.

The hull featured a high freeboard with the raised forecastle that would be carried on for all post-war cruisers with excellent sea keeping qualities.

The hull design had fine lines for the speed requirement complemented by the clipper bow with a gentle sheer and the marked flare keeping the forecastle dry even in heavy weather.

On 10 May 1930 she partook in a Naval Review celebrating 100 years since the arrival of the French in Algeria at Algiers.

[12] On 25 January 1940 she sailed to Dakar as part of Force Y[13] for employment on sweeps of the Atlantic searching for enemy merchantmen and merchant raiders.

[16][17] On 22 June she was preparing to sail with the cruisers Duguay-Trouin and Suffern for a bombardment mission on Augustus, Sicily and a raid off the Straits of Messina when official notification of the French Armistice with Germany was delivered.

On 1 May 1944 she arrived at Greenock on the River Clyde bringing ammunition for the French Second Class cruisers.

By 14 December she was in Plymouth then assigned to Group Lorraine of the French Navy employed in bombarding isolated German fortresses along the Atlantic Coast.

[21] On April 1, 1945 she was deployed with the old battleship Lorraine and several small escort ships for the successful retaking of Royan and Pointe du Grave clearing the way to Bordeaux.

[22] With the cessation of hostilities in May 1945 she underwent a five month refit at Brest commencing on 16 June finishing on 14 November 1945.

After a transport mission to Tonkin she provided fire support at Tourane (present day Da Nang).

[25] Duquesne was placed in reserve at Toulon on 1 September 1947 then attached to the Amphibious Operations Training Center at Arzew, Algeria, She proceeded to Oran for modification between February and August 1948 for her new role.