She was ordered in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and was intended for use against commerce raiders, which necessitated a high top speed, heavy armament, and long cruising radius.

She took part in the French conquest of Tunisia in 1881 and was sent to East Asia in 1883, but saw no action during the Tonkin campaign, being recalled early the next year, to be replaced by more capable cruisers that were cheaper to operate.

The two ships of the Duquesne class of unprotected cruisers were ordered during the administration of Louis Pothuau in response to the success of Confederate commerce raiders during the American Civil War.

The intent was for the new vessels to be fast enough to catch enemy raiders and powerful enough to defeat them, and to have the endurance to operate abroad for extended periods of time.

In service, the ships proved to be disappointments, owing to the great cost to operate them and the unreliability of their engines, which required significant maintenance to keep running.

Her initial trials lasted a year and a half due to her troublesome engines, and on 5 March 1878, after the testing was completed, she was reduced to the 2nd category of reserve.

[6] Tourville was thereafter decommissioned until 25 May 1883, when she returned to service for a deployment to East Asia,[5] where France had embarked on the Tonkin campaign to seize control of northern Vietnam.

[9][4] During the Fashoda Crisis in 1898, some consideration was given to disarming Duquesne and Tourville and using the guns to arm the new pre-dreadnought battleships Gaulois and Charlemagne, which were complete except for their armament.

[10] Tourville saw no further active service and was struck from the naval register on 4 December 1901, but was kept in the navy's inventory for use in experiments with devices to transfer coal at sea.