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Chapter 1- Leaves from the Log -
From There Go the Ships by George Shirley

Page 4
at Gibraltar with eighteen sail of the line and frigates to cruise off Toulon, the French having thirty-four sail of the line in the harbour. In August the Spanish fleet joined us, when all the small arms men (of which I was one) were landed to garrison the forts in the name of the French king. The united English and Spanish fleets sailed into the harbour, but might have been stopped, had it not been for an altercation between the first and second in command, one ordering the men to fire on the advancing ships, and the other not to fire. During this time the combined fleet

 
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were all in, and resistance was useless, for their broadside would have cleared the batteries from the inside of the harbour.

During the time I was employed garrisoning the forts, our ship sailed to Genoa, and captured the Modesta Republican frigate, then returned to Toulon. During the first three weeks I was on shore had no change of clothing until the ship returned, then I got a supply. Our admiral was going home in the Minerva; ordered us to sail for Gibraltar. Whilst paying there heard that Toulon was captured by the Republican troops storming it at every point, being very numerous, and Napoleon Buonaparte first signalised himself there as an artillery officer.

Toulon was full of Royalists, that is, supporters of Louis, the French king, who had been executed, and they took refuge on board the fleet, that hastened to get out of the harbour, the boats bringing away as many as they could, the Republican soldiers ruthlessly slaughtering the remainder. Lord Hood,

© Peter Smith 2008