Overseas demand and wartime shortages prolonged Surcouf's service

In 1902 Surcouf joined a French East Asian squadron that included five other protected cruisers, a deployment suited to an older small cruiser. She later returned to the Northern Squadron and remained there into 1908 with a reduced crew. France's 1914 shortage of small cruisers and other patrol vessels brought her back into front-line utility at Brest. In 1916 she transferred to the Gulf of Guinea and then to Gibraltar, where she became a depot ship. Overseas presence, wartime scarcity, and support duties kept the obsolete combatant useful through her final service with marines in French Morocco, which ended in 1919. She remained on the naval register until 1921, when she was sold for breaking up.