Raid on Genoa

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This article is about the British raid during the French Revolutionary Wars. For the Arab raid in 935, see Fatimid sack of Genoa.

Raid on Genoa
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars

Massacre de l'equipage de la Modeste, Nicolas Ozanne
Date5 October 1793
Location
Genoa, Republic of Genoa
44°24′33″N 08°55′32″E / 44.40917°N 8.92556°E / 44.40917; 8.92556
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain  France
Commanders and leaders
John Gell Unknown
Strength
2 ships of the line
1 brig-sloop		 1 frigate
2 tartanes
Casualties and losses
None 1 killed
10 wounded
1 frigate captured
2 tartanes captured

The Raid on Genoa was a minor naval engagement fought in the harbour of the Italian city of

Modeste at Genoa and Impérieuse at Leghorn
.

To eliminate the threat these isolated frigates posed, Hood ordered a squadron under Rear-Admiral

siege of Toulon
. The outnumbered defenders of the port were overwhelmed and driven into the sea by a Republican assault on 17 December.

Mediterranean in 1793

The

siege of Toulon developed.[3]

Austrian troops were also promised, to be dispatched from the Austrian Army fighting the French in Northern Italy. These troops could only reach Toulon by sea, scheduled to embark from the city port of Genoa, capital of the Italian state of the Republic of Genoa, which at this stage of the war was officially neutral. Genoa was however, in common with other Northern Italian cities, in a state of political upheaval. The French Revolution had inspired similarly-minded revolutionaries in Italy to support Republican ideas, and there was a substantial Republican faction in the Genoese government which supported France's cause.[4] Food supplies were regularly shipped from Genoa to the Republican armies in Southern France, and the demands of Francis Drake, Ambassador to Genoa, that this trade cease went unheeded.[5]

The situation at Genoa was compounded by the presence of French warships in Genoese waters. Those parts of the French fleet which had not been seized at Toulon were now deprived of a home port and so had taken refuge in neutral Italian ports, relying on Italian neutrality to protect them from attack by the more numerous enemy fleets operating in the

Modeste and 40-gun Impérieuse, which had taken shelter at Genoa and Leghorn, in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, respectively. They presented both a threat to Allied shipping and an impediment to the movement of reinforcements through the Italian ports, but despite strong protests from Drake and Lord Hervey, Ambassador to Tuscany, the Republican sympathisers in Genoa and Leghorn refused to compel the French ships to leave.[7] In July Modeste and the French corvette Badine had deliberately obstructed the frigate HMS Aigle in the neutral harbour, forcing Captain John Nicholson Inglefield to take evasive action, a calculated insult.[8] In consequence, Hood resolved that the frigates be eliminated so that the Republicans in Genoa would be coerced into withdrawing their support.[7]

Raid

John Gell, Joshua Reynolds, 1786, National Maritime Museum

To confront the French frigates, Hood diverted a powerful squadron from his fleet at Toulon. This force was led by Rear-Admiral

Samuel Reeve, as well as the French Royalist Scipion. Smaller warships accompanied the larger warships: HMS Mermaid, HMS Tartar, HMS Alerte, HMS Eclair, HMS Vulcan, HMS Conflagration, and HMS Speedy under Commander Charles Cunningham. This force was ordered to sail to Genoa and eliminate Modeste, Hood stipulating in his orders that the operation was a warning to Republican sympathisers, "regicides", in Genoa.[9] The squadron arrived off the port on 5 October.[5]

Modeste was clearly visible in the harbour, anchored at the

ship's boats from Captain and brought them close to the other side of the French frigate.[10]

The British arrival was reportedly greeted with derision by the French sailors, until a

boarding party clambered onto the frigate from Bedford's deck, to be met by resistance from the French crew.[11] Mann then ordered his ship's Royal Marines to fire into the French sailors, killing several and driving many more over the side into the harbour.[12] This attack broke their resolve and the French surrendered, several leaping into the sea to escape capture, only to be collected by the boats of Captain. As Modeste was subdued, the boats of Speedy approached the tartanes. As the boat parties boarded the small French warships, the crew of one surrendered while the other resisted the British boarders. A short melee broke out on the deck of the tartane, resulting in the captain and one other French sailor wounded and the tartane firmly in British hands. The raid completed, the British squadron withdrew from Genoa with their prizes. British sources reported that one French sailor had been killed in the operation and ten wounded, while the British boarding parties had survived unscathed,[10] while French sources claimed five killed and 30 wounded or in the most extreme accounts, as many as 50 killed.[12]

La Spezia

Alarmed by the raid on Genoa, the authorities in Leghorn ordered Impérieuse to leave immediately. The frigate sailed north and took shelter at

shore battery, and the following morning, 12 October, used his ship's boats to tow Captain alongside Impérieuse. At 08:00 boat parties from the ship of the line boarded the frigate, discovering that the remaining French crew had abandoned their disarmed ship during the night and scuttled it in shallow water. The British were able to take possession of Impérieuse without opposition from the battery. Reeve instructed his carpenters to make the frigate seaworthy again, refloating the ship and completing temporary repairs on 13 October before sailing back to Toulon with his prize.[10]

Aftermath

Modeste and Impérieuse were high-quality modern ships, and were both immediately recommissioned into the Royal Navy, Modeste with the same name and Impérieuse as HMS Unite as there was already a ship with a similar name in service.[6] The repercussions of this operation were severe however. Gell, acting on instructions from Hood, had violated Genoese neutrality in a deliberate attempt to intimidate the pro-Republican faction in the city, but their actions were readily seized upon by French propagandists such as Nicolas Ozanne, who portrayed the raid as a massacre of unarmed sailors in print form. The Genoese government broke off diplomatic relations with Britain, permitting only French ships to enter the harbour.[12] The British instituted a blockade, and as a result the 5,000 Austrian reinforcements destined for Toulon were unable to embark.[13] Drake and all British inhabitants of Genoa were expelled, and Gell initiated a blockade of the city, seizing neutral merchant shipping destined for the port. Three ships were stationed at Leghorn to watch the more quiescent Tuscan government, including the Royalist Scipion. On 26 November, Scipion, which was carrying 150 prisoners taken in the raid on Genoa, caught fire, possibly the result of arson, and was destroyed, although other accounts suggest that a barrel of brandy was ignited accidentally by a candle. The blaze killed 390 of the Royalist crew, many of whom were classed as unfit for duty.[11][14]

Without the Austrian reinforcements the defenders of Toulon were outnumbered and outflanked, coming under sustained attack by French troops directed by 24-year-old artillery officer Captain

fireships.[16] These efforts were only partially successful: fifteen ships of the line and five frigates survived the conflagration to form the nucleus of the French Mediterranean Fleet in the war to come. By the evening of 18 December Toulon was firmly in Republican hands.[17]

References

  1. ^ Chandler, p. 269
  2. ^ James, p. 66
  3. ^ Clowes, p. 206
  4. ^ Gardiner, p. 98
  5. ^ a b Rose, p. 48
  6. ^ a b Clowes, p. 213
  7. ^ a b c James, p. 87
  8. ^ Ireland, p. 146
  9. ^ Ireland, p. 214
  10. ^ a b c James, p. 88
  11. ^ a b Rose, p. 49
  12. ^ a b c d Ireland, p. 215
  13. ^ Gardiner, p. 99
  14. ^ Grocott, p.4
  15. ^ Tracy, p. 24
  16. ^ Mostert, p. 116
  17. ^ Clowes, p. 210

Bibliography

  • ISBN 978-1-84022-203-6
    .
  • ISBN 1-86176-013-2
    .
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (2001) [1996]. Fleet Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War, 1793–1797. London: Caxton Editions.
    ISBN 978-1-84067-363-0
    .
  • Grocott, Terence (2002) [1997]. Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Era. London: Caxton Editions.
    ISBN 1-84067-164-5
    .
  • ISBN 0-3043-6726-5
    .
  • ISBN 0-85177-905-0
    .
  • OCLC 9913896
    .
  • Tracy, Nicholas, ed. (1998). The Naval Chronicle, Volume 1, 1793–1798. London: Chatham Publishing.
    ISBN 1-86176-091-4
    .
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