Suffren was a wooden-hulled, armored frigate of the Océan class, built for the French Navy in the mid to late 1860s.

Suffren was one of the French ships assigned to the international squadron gathered to force the Ottoman Empire to carry out its obligations under the Treaty of Berlin in 1880.

[2] The Océan-class ships had one horizontal return connecting rod compound steam engine driving a single propeller.

[2] On sea trials the engine produced 4,100 indicated horsepower (3,100 kW) and Suffren reached 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h; 16.5 mph).

[3] The Océan-class ships were barque or barquentine-rigged with three masts and had a sail area around 2,000 square meters (22,000 sq ft).

[2] They fired a shell weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) at a muzzle velocity of about 610 m/s (2,000 ft/s) to a range of about 3,200 meters (3,500 yd).

[5] The hull was not recessed to enable any of the guns on the battery deck to fire forward or aft.

However, the guns mounted in the barbettes sponsoned out over the sides of the hull did have some ability to fire fore and aft.

[6] On 1 September 1880[6] the ship was assigned to the division that participated in the international naval demonstration at Ragusa later that month under the command of Vice Admiral Seymour of the Royal Navy in an attempt to force the Ottoman Empire to comply with the terms of the Treaty of Berlin and turn over the town of Ulcinj to Montenegro.