The Forbin-class cruisers were built as part of a construction program intended to provide scouts for the main battle fleet.

They were based on the earlier unprotected cruiser Milan, with the addition of an armor deck to improve their usefulness in battle.

Beginning in 1879, the French Navy's Conseil des Travaux (Council of Works) had requested designs for small but fast cruisers of about 2,000 long tons (2,032 t) displacement that could be used as scouts for the main battle fleet.

[1][2] The three Forbins, along with the three very similar Troude-class cruisers, were ordered by Admiral Théophile Aube, then the French Minister of Marine and an ardent supporter of the Jeune École doctrine.

The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of compound steam engines driving two screw propellers.

[9] She remained with the unit through 1893, by which time it included the ironclads Requin and Victorieuse, the coastal defense ship Furieux, and the cruiser Alger.

She took part in annual training exercises that year to evaluate the effectiveness of the French coastal defense system.

[13] Surcouf took part in the annual fleet maneuvers that began on 1 July; as she was in partial commission, she had to take on naval reservists in Cherbourg to bring her crew to the full number.

The exercises took place in two phases, the first being a simulated amphibious assault in Quiberon Bay, and the second revolving around a blockade of Rochefort and Cherbourg.

Surcouf and the bulk of the squadron were tasked with intercepting the coastal defense ship Bouvines, which was to steam from Cherbourg to Brest between 15 and 16 July.

This scenario saw the protected cruisers Sfax and Tage simulate a hostile fleet steaming from the Mediterranean Sea to attack France's Atlantic coast.

In the first, she and nine torpedo boats were assigned the task of breaking through a blockade of the Baie de Douarnenez conducted by the rest of the squadron.

The second consisted of an attack on the fortifications of Brest by the entire squadron, and the third saw the fleet conduct an amphibious assault near Douarnenez.

[19] By January 1901, Surcouf and both of her sister ships had been reduced to the reserve fleet,[20] but later that year, she was assigned to the Northern Squadron.

[25] After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Surcouf was allocated to the patrol squadron stationed in Brest, owing to the severe shortage of small cruisers.

She was thereafter used to support a squadron of submarines that was based in French Morocco, serving in that capacity into 1919, after the end of the war.

In 1920, she was moved to Rochefort to serve as a hulk, though she was struck from the naval register on 4 April 1921 and sold on 10 May to M. Jaquart to be broken up.