Chapter VI: The Patrol of the Mediterranean

It will be remembered that at the close of 1796 scarcely a British man-of-war was to be seen in the Mediterranean. To estimate the work that St. Vincent and Nelson had since accomplished, it is only necessary to say that by the summer of 1799 the British Navy was everywhere, blockading Genoa and Malta, patrolling the Egyptian and Syrian coasts, and in possession of Minorca, while Nelson was stationed at Palermo. The French armies in Italy were cut off from reinforcements by our ships before Genoa. Bonaparte’s soldiers in Egypt were equally helpless, though he himself managed to get home in spite of the danger of capture.

Attempts were of course made by the French to change this position. Rear-Admiral Perrée had served on the immense fleet which Bonaparte took to Egypt in 1798, and there was appointed to the command of the light flotilla intended to patrol the Nile. Most of his seniors were shortly afterwards killed or captured by Nelson’s fleet in Aboukir Bay, and he then took charge of the remaining frigates which had safely anchored at Alexandria, and which were compelled to remain there, as Captain Troubridge had established a blockade of the coast. When Bonaparte marched for Syria, early in 1799, Perrée was ordered to bring battering cannon to Haifa for the attack on Acre. It was some time before he got the opportunity to slip out of Alexandria, and he then found Jaffa the only place available for landing the guns. Accomplishing this, he vainly endeavoured to co-operate in the siege of Acre, but was driven off by the _Tigre_ and _Theseus_ under Sir Sydney Smith. The blockade made it impossible for Perrée to re-enter Alexandria. The five vessels therefore sailed for Toulon, and on June 18 we have in the log of the _Peterel_ the account of the capture of this unlucky squadron, within a few hours of their French haven.

_June 17._--“Admiral (Lord Keith) and fleet in company. The _Emerald_ made signal for five sail in sight. The Admiral signalled for general chace. Answered his signal to us to keep between the Admiral and the chacing ships in N.E., to repeat signals. At 8 P.M. _Emerald_ N.E., six or seven miles, Admiral west, four miles.

_June 18._--“One o’clock P.M. Saw four sail bearing N.W. At six, five sail of strangers in sight. At seven, perceived the _Centaur_ open a fire on the chace, which was returned. Saw two of them strike and shorten sail. Half-past seven, the _Emerald_ got up with, and took possession of, another. At eight o’clock the _Centaur_ brought to a fourth. The _Success_ and the _Triton_ in chace of the fifth.

_June 19._--“At daylight, ten of the fleet and five prizes in company. Boats of the fleet employed on the 19th getting the prisoners out of the prizes. These ships proved to be a squadron which had escaped out of Alexandria on the 19th of March, and, after cruising a considerable time off Joppa, were returning to Toulon. Their names are as follows:

_La Junon_ 38 guns, 600 men (with a Rear-Admiral on board).
_L’Alceste_ 36 guns.
_La Courageuse_ 32 guns, 300 men.
_L’Alerte_ 16-gun brig.
_La Salamine_ 16-gun ditto.”

Marshal Suwarrow, in command of the Russian and Austrian armies, was now making use of Bonaparte’s enforced detention in Egypt to drive the French out of Italy. By June, after the battle of the Trebbia, he had not only shut up Moreau’s army in Genoa, but had driven Macdonald back into Tuscany. It was only with the greatest difficulty that the two French commanders were able eventually to join forces in Genoa. With characteristic want of confidence in their generals, the French Directory sent out General Joubert to take command in the place of the two who had been worsted. Almost immediately after his arrival, he was himself utterly defeated and killed at the battle of Novi. Nothing was left of the French possessions in Italy except Genoa, and a few smaller fortified places. To Genoa Massena came after his successful exploits in Switzerland, and made his memorable stand, against the Austrian army besieging by land and the British blockading by sea.

With these events during 1799 and 1800, the _Peterel_ was in constant touch. On one occasion, off Savona, a vessel was taken containing two hundred and fifty wounded soldiers, who were being conveyed from Genoa back to France after the indecisive battle of the Trebbia. On this Captain Austen remarks, “As many of them were in such a state as not to be moved but at the risque of their lives, Captain Caulfield (of the _Aurora_), from motives of humanity, let the vessel proceed.”

Another capture shows how much the French were hampered by our blockade, their general being unable to reach his army excepting by sea. In Francis Austen’s own words:

_August 2, 1799._--“Last night at 9 P.M. the _Minerve’s_ boats came alongside; sent them along with our own, armed, under the command of the first lieutenant to cut out some vessels from the Bay of Diano.

“About midnight saw a very heavy fire of cannon and musketry in Diano Bay. Towards dawn the boats returned on board, having brought out a large settee laden with wine, and a French armed half-galley, mounting six guns, and rowing twenty-six oars. This galley had lately arrived from Toulon with General Joubert, appointed to supersede Moreau in the command of the French army of Italy, and was to have proceeded to-day with the general to the headquarters, near Genoa. She was manned with thirty-six people, twenty of which jumped overboard and swam ashore as soon as our boats attacked them. The other sixteen were made prisoners, amongst which was the commander of her, having the rank of ensign de vaisseau in the service of the Republic. The vessel is called _La Virginie_, is Turkish built, and was taken by the French at Malta when they got possession of that place last year.”

Another time the chace is described as follows:

_July 14._--“This vessel proved to be the _El Fortunato_ Spanish ship polacre of about 100 tons burden, from Cagliari bound to Oneglia, laden with wine, and having on board an officer charged with despatches from the King of Sardinia to General Suwarrow, Commander-in-Chief of the combined armies of Russia and Austria in Italy.”

The autumn and winter of 1799 were spent by the _Peterel_ cruising again in the west of the Mediterranean, chiefly off Minorca; but in the spring of 1800 they were again near Marseilles. The capture of the French brig _La Ligurienne_, described in the following letter, is another witness to the fruitless attempts of the French to get help to the army which Bonaparte had left behind in Egypt.

“_Peterel_ AT SEA, _March 22, 1800_.

“SIR,--I have to inform you that the vessels with which you
saw me engaged yesterday afternoon near Cape Couronne, were a
ship, brig, and xebecque, belonging to the French Republic;
two of which, the ship and xebecque, I drove on shore, and,
after a running action of about one hour and a half, during
the most of which we were not more than two cables length
from the shore, and frequently not half that distance, the
third struck her colours. On taking possession, we found
her to be _La Ligurienne_, French national brig, mounting
fourteen six-pounders, and two thirty-six-pound howitzers, all
brass, commanded by François Auguste Pelabon, lieutenant de
vaisseau, and had on board at the commencement of the action
one hundred and four men. Though from the spirited conduct
and alacrity of Lieutenant Packer, Mr. Thompson, the master,
and Mr. Hill, the purser (who very handsomely volunteered
his services at the main deck guns), joined to the gallantry
and determined courage of the rest of the officers, seamen
and marines of his Majesty’s sloop under my command, I was
happily enabled to bring the contest to a favourable issue;
yet I could not but feel the want, and regret the absence, of
my first lieutenant, Mr. Glover, and thirty men, who were at
the time away in prizes. I have a lively pleasure in that this
service has been performed without a man hurt on our part, and
with no other damage to the ship than four of our carronades
dismounted, and a few shots through the sails. _La Ligurienne_
is a very fine vessel of the kind, well equipped with stores
of all sorts, in excellent repair, and not two years old. She
is built on a peculiar plan, being fastened throughout with
screw bolts, so as to be taken to pieces and put together with
ease, and is said to have been intended to follow Bonaparte to
Egypt. I learn from the prisoners that the ship is called _Le
Cerf_, mounting fourteen six-pounders, xebecque _Le Joillet_,
mounting six six-pounders, and that they had sailed in company
with a convoy (two of which, as per margin, I captured in the
forenoon) that morning from Cette, bound to Marseilles. I
enclose a return of the killed and wounded, as far as I have
been able to ascertain it,

“And am, your very humble servant,
“FRANCIS WM. AUSTEN.

“To Robert Dudley Oliver, Esq.,
“Captain of H.M. Ship _Mermaid_.

“Return of killed and wounded in an action between his
Britannic Majesty’s sloop _Peterel_, Francis Wm. Austen, Esq.,
Commander, and the French national brig _La Ligurienne_,
commanded by François Auguste Pelabon, lieutenant de vaisseau.

“_Peterel_: Killed, none; wounded, none.

“_La Ligurienne_: Killed, the captain and one seaman; wounded,
one gardemarin and one seaman.

“(Signed) FRANCIS WM. AUSTEN.”

The captures, “as per margin,” are of a French bark, name unknown, about two hundred and fifty tons, and of a French bombarde, _La Vestic_, about one hundred and fifty tons, both laden with wheat, and both abandoned by their crews on the _Peterel’s_ attack.

If, as is stated, _La Ligurienne_ was intended to go to Egypt, it seems not improbable that the reason for her peculiar construction was that she might be taken to pieces, carried across the desert, and launched again in the Red Sea, there to take part in an attempt on India.

This exploit, though related in a matter-of-fact way by Captain Austen in his letter, was not inconsiderable in the eyes of the authorities, and the result was his immediate promotion to post rank. He himself knew nothing of this advancement until the following October; only an instance of the slowness and difficulty of communication, which was so great a factor in the naval affairs of that time.

It should be mentioned that the frigate _Mermaid_ was in sight during part of this action, which perhaps had something to do with the two French vessels running themselves ashore, also that the capture of _La Ligurienne_ was within six miles of Marseilles. The _Peterel_ took her three prizes to Minorca, where the prisoners were sent on board the _Courageuse_, one of Perrée’s frigates captured in 1799 as already described.

The next voyage was to Malta, where the fortress of Valetta was still in French hands, with a few ships under the command of Rear-Admiral Villeneuve. The British blockading squadron had just taken the _Guillaume Tell_ in the endeavour to escape from Valetta harbour, after eighteen months’ stay. This ship of the line was the only one remaining to the French from Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt and the Battle of the Nile.

The _Peterel_ took on board, in the Bay of Marsa Sirocco, thirty-five of the crew of the _Guillaume Tell_, by orders of Commodore Troubridge of the _Culloden_, and with these prisoners made sail for Palermo, where for a few days she hoisted Nelson’s flag. Arrived once more at Port Mahon, in Minorca, the French sailors were added to the number on the _Courageuse_, and the _Peterel_ found her way to Lord Keith’s fleet, now closely investing General Massena in Genoa.

The great events of the campaign of Marengo are matters of European history. The British fleet’s blockade of the coast was clearly a determining factor in the choice of the St. Bernard route by the First Consul, inasmuch as the Riviera road was commanded from the sea. It must remain a question whether Bonaparte deliberately left Massena’s army to risks of starvation and capture, in order that the destruction of the Austrian forces in Piedmont might be complete. Massena had been compelled to extend his lines too far, so that he might secure from a mountainous country the supplies which could not reach him from France. This made it possible for the Austrians to press their advantage, and to isolate the fortresses of Nice, Savona, and Genoa. The unceasing patrol of the sea completed the circle of hostile forces. The French army was entirely shut up in Genoa, and throughout the month of May the town was several times bombarded by the ships and the armed boats of the fleet. These armed boats had already reduced the small garrison of Savona. It is recorded in the _Peterel_ log that a “polacre laden with artillery and ammunition for the army of General Baron d’Ott” came from that port. The _Peterel_ was detailed by Lord Keith to cruise in shore as near as possible to Genoa, and Captain Austen received the thanks of this Admiral for his energetic performance of that duty. One night the vessel was under fire from the lighthouse forts, and received several shots. A feature of the blockade was the plan of “rowing guard” each night, in order to prevent access to the harbour after dark. The _Peterel’s_ pinnace was frequently on this duty in turn with the other boats of the fleet, and took part in cutting out the _Prima_ galley after midnight on the 21st of May. This galley was intended to take part in an attempt on the smaller vessels of the British fleet, but was attacked by the boats’ crews at the Mole when just ready to come out. She was boarded in the most gallant manner, in spite of a large force of fighting men on board, and of a heavy fire from the harbour forts. The capture was greatly helped by the conduct of the 300 galley slaves, who rowed out so fast that they almost outstripped the boats that were towing her. These slaves were allowed on deck when the prize was out of gunshot range from the harbour, and great were their manifestations of joy at their release. The sequel of the incident was tragic. Lord Keith sent most of them back to Genoa with the other French prisoners, no doubt with the idea of forcing their support on the half-starved garrison. The galley slaves were shot as traitors in the market-place.

During the preliminary conference with General d’Ott and Lord Keith, preceding the French surrender at Genoa, it is said that some contempt for Austria was expressed by Massena, who went on as follows: “Milord, si jamais la France et l’Angleterre s’entendre, elles gouverneraient la monde.” This almost foreshadows the “entente cordiale” of 1904.

On June 4 the French army capitulated. Genoa town was handed over to the Austrians under General Melas, and the port was occupied by Lord Keith in his flagship _Minotaur_.

But already the First Consul had descended into Italy, had taken possession of Milan, and was in full march to defeat Baron d’Ott at Montebello. On the 14th Marengo was fought, and the tide of fortune turned. Genoa, Savona, and all the fortresses of Piedmont were made over to the French. Massena came back on June 24, and Lord Keith had just time to move out of the harbour and to resume his blockade. The victorious First Consul was again in full possession of Northern Italy.

Before the end of May the _Peterel_ was already on her way southward, and the log records the transport of thirty-two men to H.M.S. _Guillaume Tell_ (recently captured) off Syracuse, then another call at Malta (St. Paul’s Bay) where the blockaders were busy with the later stages of the reduction of Valetta. The destination of the _Peterel_ was the coast of Egypt, where Sir Sydney Smith was locally in command. Alexandria and other harbours were still held by the French, now quite cut off from outside support. A Turkish fleet of twelve ships was at anchor off Alexandria, and the blockade was supposed to be maintained by them, but in actual practice the burden devolved upon the three British vessels, _Tigre_, _Transfer_, and _Peterel_. They appear to have joined forces at Jaffa, and to have cruised off the Egyptian coast, with an occasional visit to Cyprus, for some months. They were all this time without news from England.

The allied fleets of France and Spain were by no means inactive, and, though they did not accomplish much in the Mediterranean, there was always a serious risk for a single vessel, and despatch boats were particularly unsafe carrying, as they did, intelligence that might be useful to the enemy. At this time the Spanish ports in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar were strongly held, and it was a great object with the British Government to relieve this pressure, which seriously threatened their communications with the whole of the Mediterranean. Algeciras was specially dangerous, and we find constant attacks upon the enemy there, in which Charles Austen as Lieutenant of the _Endymion_ had a considerable part, under Sir Thomas Williams and his successor Captain Philip Durham. His service was varied by the capture of several privateers, among others of _La Furie_. The _Endymion_ afterwards convoyed ten Indiamen home from St. Helena, for which service Captain Durham received the thanks of the East India Company. On the occasion of the capture of the _Scipio_, Lieutenant Charles Austen specially distinguished himself. The encounter took place in a violent gale, but, in spite of wind and weather, he put off in a boat with only four men, and boarded the vessel, which had just surrendered. The _Scipio_ was a fine craft of 18 guns, manned by 140 men.

Charles was particularly lucky at this time in his shares of prize-money. Jane tells us in one of her letters to Cassandra how generously he spent it.

“Charles has received £30 for his share of the privateer, and expects £10 more; but of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents for his sisters? He has been buying gold chains and topaz crosses for us. He must be well scolded. I shall write again by this post to thank and reproach him. We shall be unbearably fine.”

It is a good instance of the way in which Jane Austen “worked up” her incidents that the brother’s present of a cross and a gold chain should form the groundwork on which is built up the story of Fanny’s flutterings of heart over her adornments for the ball at Mansfield.

“The ‘how she should be dressed’ was a point of painful solicitude; and the almost solitary ornament in her possession, a very pretty amber cross which William had brought her from Sicily, was the greatest distress of all, for she had nothing but a bit of riband to fasten it to; and though she had worn it in that manner once, would it be allowable at such a time, in the midst of all the rich ornaments which she supposed all the other young ladies would appear in? And yet not to wear it! William had wanted to buy her a gold chain too, but the purchase had been beyond his means, and therefore not to wear the cross might be mortifying to him. These were anxious considerations; enough to sober her spirits even under the prospect of a ball given principally for her gratification.”

Then follows Miss Crawford’s gift of a necklace to wear with the cross, with all its alarming associations with Henry Crawford; then Edmund’s gift of a chain; her resolve to wear Miss Crawford’s gift to please him; and lastly the delightful discovery that the necklace was too large for the purpose. Edmund’s chain, “therefore, must be worn; and having, with delightful feelings, joined the chain and the cross, those memorials of the two most beloved of her heart; those dearest tokens so formed for each other by everything real and imaginary, and put them round her neck, and seen and felt how full of William and Edmund they were, she was able, without an effort, to resolve on wearing Miss Crawford’s necklace too. She acknowledged it to be right. Miss Crawford had a claim; and when it was no longer to encroach on, to interfere with the stronger claims, the truer kindness of another, she could do her justice even with pleasure to herself. The necklace really looked very well; and Fanny left her room at last, comfortably satisfied with herself and all about her.”