Venice, 20 June. The Republic was collecting a considerable naval force at sea. Except for the squadron commanded by admiral Emo all ready at sea and the 42-gun frigate, a 32-gun chebecq and the 16-gun bomb chaloupe departed with admiral Prinsi on 12 June departed on 13 June another 2 galleys each with 350 men and 2 galliots with 8 gun barks. Within short time will a chebecq with two galliots depart and coming month had 3 large frigates to be fitted out for sea duty. At this moment the Republic had 24 ships at sea including 19 ships of the line while the building of another 5 ships of the line was going on. It was not clear what the purpose of this force was, that other countries respected the neutrality of the Republic or that admiral Emo wanted to force an armistice with the Bey of Tunis as soon as he got the needed gun barks. The 8 new gun barks mentioned on 12 June were apparently of a new designed while according to the news item the experiments in the harbours had been quite successful.
