French gunboats

Small and nimble, the two very busy French gunboats (i.e., les cannonières) (465 tons each), la Vipère and le Lutin are shown below. Both ships participated actively in the attack and later the blockade of Danshui. La Vipère in particular covered the retreat of French fusiliers marins from the beachhead of Fisherman's Wharf - by firing directly into the pursuing Qing soldiers.