Battle of Hyères Islands

Overview

The Battle of the Hyères Islands was a fleet action fought between a combined British and Neapolitan fleet and the French Mediterranean Fleet on 13 July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Since the start of the war in 1793 the French fleet had suffered a series of damaging defeats and was restricted to limited operations off the French Mediterranean Coast in the face of a determined allied blockade. The French fleet, commanded by Pierre Martin, had sought to test the blockade during 1795, and in March had been caught by the British, under William Hotham, in the Gulf of Genoa. At the ensuing Battle of Genoa two French ships were captured before Martin was able to retreat to a safe anchorage.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of the Hyères Islands was a fleet engagement between a combined British-Neapolitan force and the French Mediterranean Fleet during the summer of 1795. It formed part of a pattern of French naval difficulty that had persisted since the opening of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, during which the French fleet had sustained a series of damaging defeats and been confined largely to limited operations along the French Mediterranean coast under allied blockade pressure. Pierre Martin's fleet had already suffered the loss of two ships at the Battle of Genoa earlier in 1795, after attempting to test that blockade in the Gulf of Genoa. The Hyères Islands action represented another instance of the French fleet's constrained operational posture in this theater, with British commanders including William Hotham and Horatio Nelson maintaining pressure on French naval freedom of movement in the Mediterranean.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)