The guns had a sustained rate of fire of seven rounds per minute and a maximum range of 4,000 meters (4,400 yd).

[2] The ship was laid down in 1896–97[3] by Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand at their Le Havre shipyard,[2] as the last of the four Durandal-class destroyers.

She was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in December and made a number of port visits in France, Corsica and French North Africa throughout 1901.

[1] In October 1901, the 1st Battleship Division, under the command of Rear Admiral (contre-amiral) Leonce Caillard, consisting of the battleships Gaulois and Charlemagne, the armored cruiser Pothuau, and escorted by Espingole and the destroyer Epée, was ordered to proceed to the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, then part by the Ottoman Empire.

After Caillard landed two companies of marines that occupied the major ports of the island on 7 November, Sultan Abdul Hamid II agreed to enforce contracts made with French companies and to repay loans made by French banks.

LV Marcotte de Sainte-Marie was finally acquitted at his court-martial seven years after his ship ran aground.

[6] The initial salvage attempts were unsuccessful and the Espingole was struck off the naval register on 16 September.

The navy sold her wreck at auction in December 1909 and decided to offer an escalating series of bonuses if the winner could refloat the ship and deliver it intact.