Raid on Genoa

Background. The French Revolutionary Wars began in 1792 between the French Republic and the Austrian Empire, spreading in 1793 to include Spain and Great Britain. French Republican forces in the Mediterranean, pressured by Austrian and Spanish armies, Royalist uprisings, and the British blockade, lost their principal naval base when British forces under Lord Hood seized Toulon at the invitation of the city's Royalist faction.

French Ships in Neutral Harbours. After the loss of Toulon, the survivors of the French fleet were scattered across the Mediterranean, with several vessels sheltering in neutral Italian harbours. Among these were the frigates Modeste at Genoa and Impérieuse at Leghorn, and the presence of French warships in Genoese waters compounded the situation at Genoa.

The Raid. British forces entered the harbour of Genoa and boarded the French warships. The French arrival was reportedly greeted with derision by French sailors until boarding parties clambered aboard from Bedford's deck, meeting resistance from the French crew. As boat parties boarded the small French warships, one crew surrendered while the other resisted. The French crews resisted, but British boarding parties captured all three vessels without suffering any casualties.

Aftermath. Casualty accounts diverged sharply: British sources reported one French sailor killed and ten wounded with the British unscathed, while French sources claimed five killed and 30 wounded, or in the most extreme accounts as many as 50 killed. Drake and all British inhabitants of Genoa were subsequently expelled, and Gell initiated a blockade of the city, seizing neutral merchant shipping destined for the port.