squadron was joined by the cruisers Duchaffaut from New Caledonia and Lapérouse from France. Around the end of March 1885 the cruiser Kerguelen, transferred from the Pacific station, joined the squadron. French naval forces in Tonkin were strongly reinforced in the spring of 1885 by the cruisers Fabert and La Clocheterie, and the seagoing gunboat Jaguar, previously based at Along Bay as part of the Tonkin flotilla, was also transferred to the Far East squadron at this period. In April 1885 the squadron was reinforced by a third naval division, sent out from France in January 1885 under the command of Admiral Adrien-Barthélémy-Louis Rieunier. Rieunier's division consisted of the ironclad Turenne (his flagship), the cruisers Magon, Primauguet and Roland, and the gunboats Comète and Sagittaire. The division was accompanied by two more torpedo boats, Nos. 44 and 45, and by the 'auxiliary cruiser' Château-Yquem, a civilian vessel leased and armed by the French government for the duration of hostilities with China. Rieunier's division reached Far Eastern waters too late to take part in active naval operations, but some of its ships took part in the continuing French blockade of the Yangzi River between April and June 1885. In April 1885, at the end of the Sino-French War, the squadron consisted of the following vessels: Ironclads: Bayard, La Galissonnière, Turenne, Triomphante, Atalante Cruisers (1st Class): Duguay-Trouin, Villars, d'Estaing, Lapérouse, Nielly, Magon, Primauguet, Roland Cruisers (2nd Class): Champlain, Châteaurenault, Éclaireur, Rigault de Genouilly Cruisers (3rd Class): Kerguelen, Volta, Duchaffaut Avisos-transports: Saône Gunboats: Lutin, Vipère, Lynx, Comète, Sagittaire, Aspic, Jaguar Transports (1st Class): Annamite, Tonkin Auxiliary Cruisers: Château-Yquem Torpedo Boats (2nd Class): Nos. 44, 45, 46 and 50. Admiral Courbet died aboard his flagship Bayard in Magong harbour in the Pescadores on 11 June 1885, and was briefly succeeded in command of the squadron by Admiral Sébastien Lespès. On 25 July 1885 the French government reconstituted the traditional Far East naval division at close to its 1883 strength. The division, under the command of Admiral Lespès, with Rieunier second in command, consisted of the ironclads La Galissonnière (the flagship), Turenne and Triomphante, the cruisers Lapérouse, Primauguet, Champlain and Roland, and the gunboats Vipère and Sagittaire. The other ships returned to France, or were transferred to Tonkin, or were sent to the various stations of the French fleet around the globe: Around the end of June each day saw the departure of one of