Toulon, France, 29 October extracted from a private letter. The corvette la Bonite (1), which departed 1 October from Smirna arrived at Toulon. Rear-admiral Halgan was at Smirna with his vessels when the la Bonite left this port. After the feasts (Courban-Beyram) of 7-9 September problems between the Turkish and Greeks again raised and many Greeks were killed, mainly due to the fact that the commanding officer of the Janitsars returned back to Constantinople. The French ships repeatedly saved Greeks. If the French ships were prepared to protect the merchant ships of all European countries and to defend the honour of the French flag, the Austrian and British squadrons will do the same. Master Lientaud of Marseille was for instance saved by two Austrian warships from the anger of the Turkish commanding officer of the port of Siger (the Disdar). The Turkish officer thought he was dealing with a Russian ship ignoring the white flag. Her crew was threatened with the death and the ship to be plundered. Thanks to the Austrian commanding officer peace was restored, while the French representative at Metelin succeeded in proving she was a French and not a Russian ship. The same Austrian officer departed towards Smirna, leaving his frigate at Metelin to inform ear-admiral Halgan of the events. Almost at the same time arrived the brig l’Olivier (2) and the goelette l’Estafette (3) from Siger. The knight Begon de la Ronzière, commanding officer of the brig, argued with the Pasha dealing with the Disdar, and after complaining asking for mediation to prevent immediate strangling op the accused. The squadron didn’t have a moment rest. The vessels just stayed long enough at the anchorage to give the commanding officers the opportunity to consult the French representatives and to fulfil their orders with the Archipelago from one end to another and to the Syrian and Egyptian coasts if necessary. The frigate Jeanne d’Arc (4) sailed in September towards Alexandria. The squadron lost recently captain Serval, commanding officer of the la Bonite and 23 September died lieutenant Gay, commanding officer of the corvette la Coevrette (5), caused by a fever. The brig la Ruse (6)brought the French representative of Saint-Jean d’Acre no this town.
The Greek squadrons fitted out by Hydra, Ipsera and Spezia constantly threaten the Turkish ships using fire ships. Until now the Turkish were able to avoid the fire ships simple by manoeuvring, but the coming season will force to go to their anchorage. The number of Greek ‘warships’ at sea is estimated to be around 170. The vessels are for the larger part armed with small guns in worse condition. Another problem was that the Greeks didn’t accept a supreme command, just only their own commanding officers.
Sources
J. Vichot. Repertoire des navires de guerre français. Paris, 1967.
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Notes
1. Corvette de charge La Bonité, launched at La Ciotat 1810 ex-Le Lybio renamed 1835, and last mentioned 1842.
2. Launched at Nantes 1810, ex- le Mameluck renamed 1814 and last mentioned 1824.
3. On stocks at Toulon 1809, launched 1810, lost at sea 1836.
4. On stocks at Brest 1819, launched 1820, last mentioned 1833 according to Vichot. According to www.subscribe.com laid down 17 February 1819, launched 5 August 1820, commissioned 9 January 1921 and stricken 26 October 1833, but still existing as training ship for sailors at Brest in 1850 but not longer mentioned on the Navy List in 1865. A 2nd class 58-gun frigate, designed by Simon, with as sister ship the Amazone.
5. The gabare la Chevrette launched at Toulon 1811 and wrecked 20 March 1830?
6. On stocks and laid down 1814 and last mentioned 1835.
