1798 - Turks at Corfu


 
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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol II
1798 Turks, &c., at Corfu 191

combined Turks and Russians had possessed themselves, with very little difficulty, the garrisons being weak and the principal inhabitants in their favour, of all the islands except Corfu. The number of killed, wounded, and prisoners of the French, at these islands and on the main land, was computed at 1500.

The time occupied by the enemy's fleet in reducing the other islands had enabled General Chabot to make the best dispositions in his power for defending Corfu. His garrison amounted to only 1500-infantry, and about 300 artillerymen. The naval force in the port consisted of the 74-gun ship Généreux, Captain Le Joille, the 50-gun ship Leander (but not in a state to be very useful), 28-gun frigate Brune, Captain Gabriel Denieport, a bomb-vessel, a brig, and four armed galleys. On the 20th the whole of the combined fleet came to an anchor in the Channel of Corfu, and in the course of a few days disembarked their troops. These commenced erecting batteries, and, when at length they were completed, began a cannonade upon the fortifications around the city. The tardy manner in which the besiegers proceeded in their operations, coupled with the skilful manner in which the French general conducted his defence, left the island still unsubdued at the close of the year. In the mean while the Généreux had sailed for Ancona, and the three ex-Venetian 64s, Stengel, La Harpe, and Beyrard, accompanied by some transports, had arrived off the small island of Faro, with a reinforcement of 3000 men from Ancona, intended for Corfu ; but, finding how affairs in that island were likely to terminate, the commodore of the squadron steered in another direction.

The French naval force in Alexandria, off which port Captain Samuel Hood, with the three 74-gun ships the Zealous, Goliath, and Swiftsure, and frigates Seahorse, Emerald, and Alcmène, was stationed, consisted of the ex-Venetian 64-gun ships Causse and Dubois, French 38-gun frigate Junon, and 36-gun frigates Alceste and Courageuse, and ex-Venetian 38-gun frigates Carrère and Muiron, and 32-gun frigates Leoben, Mantone, and Montenotte, four brig-corvettes, and nine gun-boats, manned on the 26th of August, as officially reported in one of Rear-admiral Ganteaume's intercepted despatches, with 4948 officers and seamen ; the whole under the command of Rear-admiral Ganteaume, and subsequently of Commodore Dumanoir-le-Pelley.

It will be recollected, that the above-mentioned ships, although they were armed en flûte on leaving Toulon with the expedition, brought out, and were expressly directed to equip themselves with their full number of guns. This accounts for their crews being so numerous. The Causse, for instance, appears by her muster-roll to have had 608 men, the Junon 368, and the Courageuse 334. Even the transports could muster among them as many as 3017 officers and men. Exclusive of the force stationed at Alexandria ; there were 15 heavy gun vessels, under

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