D'Entrecasteaux was a large protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The only vessel of her class, D'Entrecasteaux was intended to serve as a flagship of the cruiser squadron that defended French Indochina and other possessions in the Far East. Her construction came during a period of conflict in the French naval command between factions that favored different cruiser types; D'Entrecasteaux represented the ideas of the Jeune École, who favored large cruisers for long-range operations overseas. She was armed with a main battery of two 240 mm (9.4 in) guns, the largest guns ever carried aboard a French cruiser, though their great weight, coupled with her pronounced ram bow degraded her seaworthiness. She nevertheless provided the basis for later armored cruisers.