Charner's squadron, the most powerful French naval force seen in Vietnamese waters before the creation of the French Far East Squadron on the eve of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885), included the steam frigates Impératrice Eugénie and Renommée (Charner and Page's respective flagships), the corvettes Primauguet, Laplace and Du Chayla, eleven screw-driven despatch vessels, five first-class gunboats, seventeen transports and a hospital ship.
In early February 1885 part of Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron left Keelung to head off a threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to break the French blockade of Formosa (Taiwan).
•
On 11 June 1885 Admiral Courbet died of dysentery aboard his flagship Bayard in Makung harbour, where most of the Far East Squadron had been stationed since the end of the Pescadores Campaign (late March 1885).
•
At least two ships of the Far East Squadron remained anchored at the entrance to Zhenhai Bay throughout March.
East Germany | Middle East | East India Company | University of East Anglia | Dutch East Indies | East Prussia | East Africa | Lower East Side | East Sussex | East Riding of Yorkshire | Far East | East Berlin | Dutch East India Company | East Java | East Coast of the United States | East Coast Main Line | East Anglia | East End of London | East Pakistan | East | East Timor | East Frisia | Canada East | Russian Far East | University of the East | East Lothian | East Asia | Upper East Side | East Village | North East England |
The mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Admiral Amédée Courbet was ordered to take his Far East Squadron to Fuzhou (Foochow).
He delivered a moving tribute to his predecessor at a memorial service for Courbet at Makung on 13 June attended by the sailors of the Far East Squadron and the marine infantry of the Formosa expeditionary corps that had fought the Pescadores Campaign.
In December 1914, the harbour was the base for a British Squadron lying in wait for the German Far East Squadron led by Adm. Graf von Spee.