In 1862 she was in the Baltic when she gave aid to a British vessel who she towed her 80 miles from Bomarsund to Stockholm, on board had been Lord Dufferin, who she was to meet again 3 years later.

In June 1856 she took Prince Napoléon on an expedition to Greenland, with the Artémise (1847), a 28-gun corvette, La Perdrix and, the "cocyte", and two British coal tender screw steamers, the "Tasmania" and the "Saxon" of 700 tons each.

On 30 June at Reykjavík in Iceland, she met again Lord Dufferin who was on his own travels that would feature in his book Letters From High Latitudes, published the next year.

The fragile La Reine Hortense was soon to be in increasing danger from the ice and the French were required to abandon their journey 100 miles short of Jam Mayen, and return to Reykjavík.

[1] In her military role, her performances inspired a whole generation of commerce raiding cruisers; these ships, inexpensive, unarmoured sail and steam corvettes or frigates with a relatively heavy armament, proved useful to enact gunship diplomacy around the world, but became obsolete after the Franco-Prussian War.