Naval history of Great Britain by William James - French frigates at Genoa and Spezzia


 
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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol I

1793

French Frigates at Genoa and Spezzia

87

on fire by hot shot), were a good deal damaged, and had sustained a loss, the one, of her first lieutenant (Ludlow Sheills) and one seaman (in the act of cutting a redhot shot out of the ship's side) killed, and her second lieutenant William Henry Daniel and 12 seamen wounded ; the other, of one midshipman (John Martin) and 13 seamen killed, and 17 seamen wounded. The Alcide, having failed in her efforts to close, had sustained but slight damage in hull, masts, or rigging. A 24-pound shot fell into the cutter as she was towing the ships clear of the rocks, and went through the bottom, but did not hurt a man. Soon afterwards, a redhot shot struck the Alcide's ninth lowerdeck port from forward, carried it away, came in on the lower deck; broke the sweep, and fell on the after grating. One of the sailors, with a wet swab, took it up, and threw it overboard. The Alcide's loss amounted to only nine seamen wounded, three of them mortally. The enemy's force consisted of one 4, two 8, and thirteen 24 pounder guns, nine of which were mounted at the town, and six heavy mortars. The failure was attributed partly to a mistake as to the range of those nine 24-pounders, and to a want of co-operation on the part of General Paoli's adherents, who had undertaken, simultaneously with the attack from the sea, to storm the posts from the land ; but the chief cause of the failure, undoubtedly, was the tardiness of Commodore Linzee in commencing the attack.

While the British fleet lay at Toulon, Lord Hood occasionally sent small detachments in quest of the remaining ships of the Toulon fleet, still, according to information received, cruising in the Mediterranean seas. On the morning of the 5th of October the British 74-gun ships Bedford, Captain Robert Mann, and Captain, Captain Samuel Reeve, with the 14-gun brig-sloop Speedy, Captain Charles Cunningham, arriving on this mission off the port of Genoa, discovered lying within the mole the French 36-gun frigate Modeste, likewise two armed tartans, vessels that generally carry two long 12-pounders as prow-guns, and two long 6-pounders abaft, with a complement of about 70 men.

The French factions at Leghorn and Genoa, by their sway over the inhabitants, having entirely changed the character of those ports, and repeated remonstrances on the subject having been made in vain by Lord Hervey, the Brilish minister at Leghorn, it was resolved, by a council of British naval officers, that, notwithstanding the assumed neutrality of the port, they would seize the French frigate and tartans.

Accordingly, the ships stood in, and the Bedford warped herself close to the frigate. Early in the afternoon, she having veered her cable, dropped close alongside of, and boarded the Modeste. The crew, 275 in number, making some opposition to the striking of their colours, were fired on by the Bedford's marines, and lost, in consequence, one man killed, and eight

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