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.

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

The squadron was ordered to lift its blockade of the Prussian North Sea ports on 16 September and return to Cherbourg.

On 8 August 1873, Atalante was put into the Fitzroy Dock at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney, Australia.

[7] She returned on 27 February 1874 where she placed into reserve but was recommissioned on 28 December 1875 as the flagship of the China Squadron under Rear Admiral Veron.

Atalante was assigned to bombard the North Fort by the French commander, Vice Admiral Amédée Courbet.

[6] Ensign (French: Enseigne de vaisseau) Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud, who was aboard the Atalante during the battle and participated in the landing, wrote several articles graphically describing his experiences that were published in the newspaper Le Figaro under the pen-name of Pierre Loti.

[8] The ship was assigned to the Far East Squadron (escadre de l'Extrême-Orient) under Admiral Courbet when it was formed by the amalgamation of the Tonkin Coast and Far Eastern Divisions in June 1884 in preparation for the Sino-French War of 1884–85.