The Alma-class ironclads[Note 1] were designed as improved versions of the armored corvette Belliqueuse suitable for foreign deployments.

Unlike their predecessor the Alma-class ships were true central battery ironclads as they were fitted with armored transverse bulkheads.

[2][3] On sea trials the engine produced 1,585 indicated horsepower (1,182 kW) and the ship reached 10.48 knots (19.41 km/h; 12.06 mph).

[5] Armide had a complete 150-millimeter (5.9 in) wrought iron waterline belt, approximately 2.4 meters (7.9 ft) high.

[6] The squadron was ordered to lift its blockade of the Prussian Baltic ports on 16 September and return to Cherbourg.

[7] Armide was decommissioned on 1 November, but was recommissioned on 12 January 1871 to blockade the Prussian corvette SMS Arcona in Lisbon for the duration of the war.

She was recommissioned in 1877 as the flagship of the China Squadron under Rear Admiral Duburquois and departed Brest on 17 January 1878.

She was set adrift and fired at by a group of French ironclads at ranges up to 5,000 meters (5,500 yd); she was towed back to port to examine the effects of the shells.