[1] The two later ships were designed by Sabattier who reduced the number of screws from two to one to improve their sailing qualities, added an 194-millimeter (7.6 in) bow chaser under the forecastle and increased the caliber of the secondary armament.

[4] La Galissonnière had two Wolf vertical compound steam engines,[4] each driving a single 3.8-meter (12 ft 6 in) propeller.

[4] On sea trials the engines produced a total of 2,370 indicated horsepower (1,770 kW) and the ship reached 13.08 knots (24.22 km/h; 15.05 mph).

[7] 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).

[8] The La Galissonnière-class ships had a complete 150-millimeter (5.9 in) wrought iron waterline belt, approximately 2.4 meters (7.9 ft)[2] high laid over 650 millimeters (26 in) of wood.

[4] La Galissonnière's initial commissions were in the Pacific and in the Caribbean, but she was assigned to the Levant Squadron (French: Division Navale du Levant) when she bombarded the Tunisian port of Sfax in July 1881 as part of the French occupation of Tunisia.

[11] In early 1882 La Galissonnière was the flagship of the Levant Squadron under Rear Admiral Alfred Conrad.

[12] Both La Galissonnière and Triomphante were assigned to the Far East Squadron in 1884, under the command of Vice Admiral Amédée Courbet, and participated in several actions during the Sino-French War of 1884–85.

Both ships fought in the Battle of Fuzhou, destroying a small Chinese fleet and coastal defenses defending the Min River.

[13] They supplied landing parties during the Battle of Tamsui in October 1884, but they were forced to retreat by Chinese troops, although suffering few casualties (11 killed and 4 wounded between the two ships).

She became flagship of the Levant Squadron after she arrived in France, but was in bad shape and soon placed in reserve at Cherbourg.

That plan was later cancelled and Victorieuse was paid off in 1899, becoming guardship of the outer harbor at Brest until finally condemned the following year.