1881, he served aboard ships of the Antilles Division, first as second-in-command of the steam frigate from 1877 to 1878, then as second-in command of the cruiser . Promoted to capitaine de frégate on 12 July 1881, Pottier became second-in-command of the steam frigate , which was serving as a training ship for midshipmen. In August 1882, he reported aboard the ironclad battleship as her second-in-command. In November 1882, he transferred to the new ironclad battleship – which was commissioned that month and was assigned to the Reserve Squadron – as her commanding officer. He became commanding officer of the aviso in the Antilles Division in January 1884 and was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour on 18 November 1884. Pottier received a promotion to capitaine de vaisseau on 8 February 1886 and took command of the battleship in the Levant Division in April 1887. In 1889, he became Director of Underwater Defenses for the 4th Maritime District, headquartered at Rochefort, France. From 1890 to 1891, he was commanding officer of the ironclad battleship in the Mediterranean and the Levant. In April 1892, he became the naval adjutant in Rochefort. Promoted to rear admiral on 10 February 1893, Pottier became 4th Maritime District commander at Rochefort on 7 October 1893. He assumed command of a division of the Mediterranean Squadron in 1896. In 1897, he took command of the French division of the International Squadron, a multinational force that intervened in a Christian uprising against the Ottoman Empire on Crete, operating on and around Crete from February 1897 to December 1898 and managing the island's affairs via an Admirals Council consisting of the admirals commanding the national contingents of the squadron, which included Pottier. In 1898 he relieved Italian Vice Admiral Felice Napoleone Canevaro as commander of the International Squadron and president of the Admirals Council, remaining the squadron's senior officer and president of the council until the squadron's dissolution, and he was elevated to the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on 12 July 1898 and promoted to vice admiral on 11 October 1898. In the International Squadron's final act, Pottier steamed aboard his flagship, the protected cruiser – accompanied by the squadron's Italian flagship, the battleship , its Russian flagship, the armored cruiser with the senior Russian commander Rear Admiral Nicholas Skrydloff aboard, and its British flagship, the battleship with Rear-Admiral Gerard Noel aboard –