Battle of Genoa (1795)

The French Revolutionary Wars expanded significantly in February 1793 when the National Convention of the newly-formed French Republic declared war on the Kingdom of Great Britain. To defend British commercial interests in the Mediterranean Sea, a Royal Navy fleet was assembled and sent to blockade the French Mediterranean Fleet in their main port of Toulon on the Southern coast of France. On arrival in August 1793, the British fleet found that Toulon was in a state of upheaval due to the Reign of Terror, and the British commander Lord Hood persuaded the citizens to declare for the French Royalist cause and allow British forces to seize the town and the French fleet. Republican forces laid siege to the city and four months of heavy fighting followed until the Royalists and their allies were expelled on 18 December. During the chaotic evacuation of the city most of the French Mediterranean fleet was set on fire by British and Spanish boarding parties. In the aftermath, the British launched an invasion of Corsica while the French set about rebuilding their fleet. For most of 1794 the surviving French ships remained in harbour, the new commander Counter-admiral Pierre Martin leading a brief sally in June with seven ships of the line which was forced to shelter at Gourjean Bay to escape an attack by Lord Hood's fleet. Problems stemming from the French Revolution several years earlier meant that the French fleet was suffering severe reductions in experience and morale in comparison with the British fleet. By 1795 the full surviving strength of the French Mediterranean Fleet had been restored, Martin mustering 15 ships of the line and six frigates for an operation in the Ligurian Sea. The purpose of this operation is uncertain; the report of the Committee of Public Safety to the National Convention stated that the fleet was at sea to secure shipping lines in the Mediterranean, although these vessels did not leave harbour during the operation. Historian Adolphe Thiers has suggested that the objective may have been a demonstration of force against Rome, following the lynching of French ambassador Nicolas Bassville there two years earlier. ==Martin's cruise==

Martin was reluctant to leave Toulon until he could be certain that the lax British blockade of the port had been temporarily retired. Hood had been replaced in late 1794 by his deputy Vice-Admiral William Hotham, who based his ships in San Fiorenzo Bay on the northern coast of Corsica during the winter. There they had attempted partial refits and one ship, , had been badly damaged due to poor handling during a gale. In late February Hotham sailed for more extensive repairs at Leghorn in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, leaving Berwick behind. The French fleet faced a series of gales, and it took four days to reach the Corsican coast; two ships were partly dismasted during the passage. There Martin's scouts discovered the damaged Berwick limping around Cap Corse with jury masts. Recognising his superiority, Martin detached a squadron of frigates and ships of the line to chase Berwick and a short battle developed in which the fleeing Berwick fought the frigate Alceste. Both ships took damage in the encounter, but as Alceste dropped back, a bar shot tore the head off Captain Adam Littlejohn on Berwick. On same day as the capture of Berwick, news of the French departure from Toulon reached Hotham at Leghorn from Genoa, with reports that the French had passed Île Sainte-Marguerite on 6 March, heading east. Hotham believed that the French target was Corsica, and sent the brig under Commander Charles Brisbane to warn Littlejohn and arrange a rendezvous with Berwick off Cap Corse. On the evening of 9 March Tarleton returned with the news of the capture of Berwick, causing Hotham to veer north-west in his course. ==Chase==

The weather was calm, and it was not until 11 March that ships from the main body of the British fleet sighted the French, now south and to windward of the British. The lead ship in Hotham's fleet at this time was , leading a vanguard some 5 or ahead of the main body of the fleet. A breeze from the south in the evening gave Hotham the opportunity to form up his fleet into a line of battle with the van to the west, the French to the southwest. At 08:00 the following morning another of Martin's ships, the large 80-gun from the rearguard of the French fleet, collided with the neighbouring Victoire and its fore and main topmasts collapsed overboard. The leading ship of the chase was a frigate, the 36-gun HMS Inconstant under Captain Thomas Fremantle, which reached the damaged Ça Ira within an hour of the collision and opened fire at close range on the larboard quarter. The attack by Inconstant had allowed other British ships to join the action, so that at 10:45 the 64-gun HMS Agamemnon under Captain Horatio Nelson was able to open fire on the French ship. The attack killed or wounded 110 crew on the French ship, and shattered the masts and rigging. Nelson had just seven men wounded in the encounter. Efforts by Sans Culotte and Barra to intervene were driven off and Ça Ira was severely damaged by Agamemnon's fire. Eventually parts of the French centre dropped back in support and Hotham ordered Nelson to fall back rather than risk being overwhelmed. While this combat continued other British ships had come up, HMS Bedford and HMS Egmont engaging three French ships, including and Martin's flagship the 120-gun Sans Culotte. Egmont was hampered during the engagement by an explosion of a bursting cannon on the lower deck, which caused nearly 30 casualties among the gun crews. Hotham's fleet was unable to fully engage with the retreating French throughout the day however, and when night fell both fleets continued westwards, the French withdrawing with the British line in pursuit. ==Battle rejoined==

, 1810) During the night Martin and Letourneur transferred from Sans Culotte to the frigate Friponne, which allowed them to move through the fleet more easily and direct operations more effectively, and was part of French standing orders when in a fleet battle. Orders were given for the French fleet, now in full retreat towards Toulon, to sail close to the wind on the larboard tack away from the British. Shortly afterwards Bedford too was forced to withdraw with extensive damage to the sailing rig. Both French ships had also been badly damaged, and were left drifting out of control, unable to unite with Martin's main fleet. Both fleets were by this point beset by a period of calm weather which made manoeuvres difficult, and the French turn caught HMS Lowestoft by surprise, the frigate suddenly under the guns of the leading French ship Duquesne under Captain Zacharie Allemand. Hotham had succeeded in interposing his ships between the shattered French ships and Martin's main fleet, and it seemed that a close general action was inevitable. At 08:00 Allemand engaged Illustrious and then Courageux, Duquesne joined in the attack by Victoire and Tonnant, For an hour the French and British vanguards exchanged heavy fire, with Illustrious taking the worst of the exchange, drifting out of the battle heavily damaged; the mainmast had collapsed onto the mizzen mast and both had fallen over the side, while the ship's crew had suffered 90 casualties. Courageux was the next to suffer, similarly losing two masts and with the hull shattered by French shot. Captain Augustus Montgomery's crew had lost nearly 50 sailors killed and wounded. The French ships in this exchange were reported as firing heated shot, although it had little effect on the battle. Allemand's van squadron then pulled away from the drifting British ships, which were unsupported by the becalmed British fleet. The rest of the French fleet had not followed Allemand, and turned away, the van following. This left the battered Ça Ira and Censeur trapped on the far side of the British fleet, Martin abandoning them to their fate. Isolated, these ships surrendered at 10:05. Without British pursuit, concerted long range firing finally ceased at 14:00; Hotham had decided that addressing the severe damage to his van ships and securing the prizes was more important than continuing the action and tacked his fleet away from Martin's rapidly disappearing ships. Nelson believed that by abandoning the prizes and disabled ships and closely following the French, Hotham could force an action which might destroy the entire French fleet. So convinced was the British captain that he took a boat to Hotham's flagship HMS Britannia to try to persuade the admiral. Hotham refused, replying that "We must be contented, we have done very well". No amount of appeals by Nelson or Rear-Admiral Samuel Goodall on Princess Royal could move Hotham to continue the action, and soon the French were out of sight. ==Aftermath==

Hotham gathered his prizes and dismasted ships and turned eastwards for the anchorage in the Gulf of La Spezia. All of his battle line had been in action and taken casualties, with the heaviest losses aboard the badly damaged and partially dismasted Illustrious and Courageux. Captain, Bedford, Egmont and HMS Windsor Castle were also damaged, all suffering more than 20 casualties. The ship's jury masts were lost overboard and the many holes in the hull allowed water to pour into the ship. At 13:30 the ship's situation was worsened when a loaded cannon fired accidentally, blowing off the gunport and blasting a large hole in the ship from the inside. This rendered Illustrious unmanageable, and by 14:00 the Italian coast was clearly visible to the east. His ship drifting dangerously inshore, at 14:30 Captain Thomas Frederick gave control to a sailor on board who claimed to have navigated the region and knew a safe anchorage. The following morning Tarleton came alongside the irreparably damaged Illustrious, although it was not until 20 March that the weather had abated sufficiently to permit the evacuation to begin. Tarleton, Lowestoft, HMS Romulus, and teams of ship's boats, successfully removed all of the crew and most of the ship's stores without casualties. Once the wreck had been cleared, it was set on fire and abandoned. The surviving fleet remained at La Spezia for a week effecting basic repairs, before sailing for San Fiorenzo on 25 March. Refits lasted until 18 April, at which point Hotham returned to Leghorn. Ça Ira survived only a little longer, catching fire accidentally while at anchor off San Fiorenzo on 11 April 1796 and being completely destroyed, although only four of the 600 crew were killed. Martin retreated to Hyères after the battle, joined shortly afterwards by the damaged ships from Gourjean Bay and the flagship from Genoa. The captains of Sans Culottes, Mercure and Duquesne were reprimanded by Martin for failing to follow his orders, but subsequently cleared of misconduct by a jury, which also highly commended the captains of Ça Ira and Censeur. He did not sail again until June, and was caught by Hotham once more in early July. Retreating towards Hyères, the French fleet was pursued by the British, and the rearmost ship Alcide was overrun and destroyed at the Battle of the Hyères Islands. Although the battle was a British victory, Nelson was privately scathing of Hotham's refusal to renew the action, writing that "I could never have called it well done". Hotham believed his actions vindicated by the prevention of possible French landings on Corsica and was preoccupied by events on land, where a peace treaty between France and Tuscany placed access to the harbour at Leghorn in jeopardy. Historians have criticised Hotham's timidity, William Laird Clowes writing in 1900 stated that "it was an unsatisfactory victory. Hotham took two ships of the line but gained little credit, seeing that he might have, and should have, done much more." More than five decades after the battle the Admiralty recognised the action with a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847. ==Notes==