 "Bayard" arrived in Along Bay on 10 July, and for the next eleven months served as flagship of the Tonkin Coasts naval division.In August 1883, in the Battle of Thuận An, she bombarded the coastal defences of Hué, receiving minor shot damage from the Vietnamese shore batteries.From October 1883 to June 1884, during the period of growing tension that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885), she took part in a French naval blockade of the coast of Tonkin.