Siege of Cattaro

As part of Venetian Albania, Cattaro had belonged to the Republic of Venice from 1420 to 1797, when it passed to the Habsburg monarchy with the Treaty of Campo Formio. In 1805, it was assigned to the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg, but occupied by Russian troops under Dmitry Senyavin until they left after the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. Three years later it was incorporated into the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. Austria declared war on France in August 1813 and by the Autumn the Royal Navy enjoyed unopposed domination over the Adriatic sea. Working in conjunction with the Austrian armies now invading the Illyrian Provinces and Northern Italy, Rear Admiral Thomas Fremantle's ships were able to rapidly transport British and Austrian troops from one point to another, forcing the surrender of the strategic ports, Zara for example had been liberated in December. Meanwhile, Royal Naval Captain William Hoste with his ship HMS Bacchante (38 guns) and a brig-sloop HMS Saracen (18 guns), under Captain John Harper had been given orders for the swift expulsion of the French in the region. They took part in an attack that seized the islands of Hvar and Brač and moved along the coast. Cattaro was next on the target for the British; a body of Montenegrin troops under Petar I Petrović-Njegoš a popular spiritual and military leader of the Serbian Orthodox church from the Petrović dynasty had surrounded the place. Saracen arrived first just outside Cattaro Bay but it was impossible to sail direct to the main fortress so Harper called on the local inhabitants to tow her along the rocky shore for 3 miles. Hoste in Bacchante arrived soon after with three Sicilian gunboats carrying fifty soldiers and assumed command. The British and Sicilians forced the passage between Herceg Novi and Fort Rosa and secured an anchorage some three miles inside the outer bay. ==Blockade and siege==

On the evening of the 14th Harper left with two gunboats, the launch and barge of Bacchante and the boats of Saracen entered the inner bay where he was fired on from the Island of St George. Afterwards heading four miles towards Cattaro he found four gunboats in a state of revolt and took possession of them. He then landed at various places where the local inhabitants were arming themselves against the French and collected volunteer crews for his new captures. The prize gunboats each had a long 24-pounder in the bow and two of them each carried a 12-pounder carronade. Meanwhile, Bacchante and the rest of her crew mounted further pieces of ordnance; two batteries of 18 and 32-pounders were added. Hoste, despite being ill, personally helped the men get the equipment up the slopes of the mountain but further North and South respectively of the fort and the main battery on the slope. ==Aftermath==

The loss on the British, amounting to only one seaman killed, and Lieutenant of marines slightly wounded. In the course of the twenty-day siege, Hoste had counted on the support of Austrian infantry which failed to show up. Hoste signed the articles of capitulation and the remaining French and Italian troops marched out in surrender, after which British troops marched in along with the Montenegrins. Hoste gave the town to the Montenegrin commission under Peter which aggravated Lord Aberdeen but Hoste argued that he had no choice in the matter. Hoste with Bacchante and Saracen after a short rest and recuperation left Cattaro to sail to the fortress of Ragusa where they laid siege to the place in a very similar manner to Cattaro and on the 28th it surrendered. ==See also==