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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol I |
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1793 |
British and French Fleets |
82 |
the official accounts of the time, disposed of in the .manner explained in the following table:
Disposal of the Ships and Vessels that composed the French force at Toulon, August 28, 1793. |
SHIPS OR VESSELS OF, GUNS, |
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120 |
80 |
74 |
40 |
32 |
26 |
24 |
20 |
18 |
16 |
14 |
Total |
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Burnt, or otherwise destroyed |
- | 3 | 14 | 2 | 5 | - | - | 2 | - | 1 | - | 27 | ||
Brought away |
by the British | 1 | - | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | - | - | 1 | 15 | |
| by the Allies | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 | ||
Total |
lost to the French | 1 | 3 | 16 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 45 | |
left to the French |
at Toulon | 1 | 1 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 8 | |
| Sent to Brest, &c. | - | - | 4 | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 5 | ||
Grand total |
2 | 4 | 25 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 58 | ||
The fourteen 74s, described in this table as burnt, are meant to include one that was on the stocks ; and the first two 40-gun frigates were also building. The five 74s, represented as left to the French at Toulon, include the Alcide, stated to be "unfit for service;" but which ship was afterwards in an engagement at sea. The Alcide, and three of the four remaining 74s, namely, the Censeur, Guerrier, and Souverain, as well as the Dauphin-Royal (afterwards Sans-Culotte) 120, and Languedoc (afterwards Victoire) 80, had been intrusted to the Spaniards to burn; but the latter (treacherously as it would appear) left them untouched, and in possession of the French.
Information, of a date subsequent to that of the official despatch, lessened the number of vessels supposed to have been destroyed. The fire had not reached, or at least not materially injured, the 80-gun ship, Tonnant, nor the Heureux, Commercede-Bordeaux, Mercure, and Conquérant, 74s; neither did the 74, nor either of the two frigates on the stocks, take the fire to any extent. Both these frigates, one named Minerve, and the other Justice, were launched in September, 1794. The 74-gun ship was launched about the same time: her name was not, however, as generally supposed, Spartiate, but Barras. The frigates, Sérieuse, Courageuse, and Iphigénie, and the brig Alerte, also escaped unhurt. With respect to the buildings on shore, it was afterwards ascertained, that the grand magazine had escaped the ravages of the flames, the smaller storehouses only having been consumed.
The powder-ships Iris and Montréal had been British frigates: the latter, of 681 tons, was captured by the French in 1779; the former, of 730 tons (originally an American frigate,), in 1781. There had been at Toulon a third captured British frigate, the Richmond, of 664 tons; but she was sold or broken up a few months before the British entered the port.
In a French navy-list presented to the National Convention in the preceding March, many of the frigates at Toulon are
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