18 to 19 December 1793
The Allies leave Toulon
Captain Sidney Smith and Spanish boat parties under Don Pedro Cotiella are ordered to destroy the arsenal and the French fleet. At 20:00 the fire ship Vulcan enters the New Arsenal, and at 22:00 Smith lights her fuses across the row of French ships of the line while fire parties burn the stores ashore. The powder ship Iris explodes as his boats pass her, and later the second powder hulk, Montréal. Republican troops take the Old Arsenal before the Spanish parties can finish their work there.
The destruction of the French fleet at Toulon, 18 December 1793, by Thomas Whitcombe, 1816Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Whitcombe, Public domain (Destruction of the French Fleet at Toulon 18th December 1793 (cropped).jpg)
Ships under Captain George Elphinstone take the Allied troops off the waterfront, and by the morning of 19 December all of them are on board. The British fleet also carries away 14,877 inhabitants of Toulon, while Republican soldiers fire into the crowds on the quays. Eight French ships of the line and several smaller vessels are burned, and the Allies take three ships of the line with them. Fifteen ships of the line survive, damaged but repairable.
The Allies evacuate Toulon in December 1793, the arsenal and part of the fleet on fire, print by A. ForandWikimedia Commons, A. Forand, Public domain (Les coalises evacuent Toulon en decembre 1793 (cropped).jpg)
Republican troops enter Toulon on 19 December. The representatives Paul Barras and Stanislas Fréron set up commissions to punish the rebels, and in the first mass executions about 700 to 800 prisoners are shot or bayoneted on the Champ de Mars. The Convention renames the city Port-la-Montagne. Bonaparte is promoted to brigadier general on 22 December.
Sources
- Bernard Ireland, The Fall of Toulon (2005).
- William James, The Naval History of Great Britain, volume 1 (1827).
- N. A. M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean (2004).
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