Martin's cruise of 1794 was the only significant French naval operation of the year in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1793 France had gone to war with Great Britain and a wide coalition of European enemies in the French Revolutionary Wars. Early in the conflict the British had seized the French Mediterranean Fleet and their home port of Toulon, the town enduring a four month siege by French Republican forces in which the fleet was badly damaged. With the town and fleet back in French hands, the French set about effecting repairs as the British attacked the island of Corsica.
In June 1794 the French commander Contre-amiral Pierre Martin led a squadron of ships out to contest British operations off Corsica. There was initial success when the frigate Boudeuse attacked and captured the Sardinian frigate Alceste off Fréjus on 8 June, but three days later Martin was forced to retreat from the main strength of the British fleet under Lord Hood. The French anchored in Gourjean Bay, and although Hood planned a number of attacks on the French position, ultimately it was decided that Martin was too well protected and a blockade was put in place instead.
Martin was able to escape the blockade in November and return to Toulon without further incident. The captured Alceste, formerly a French ship captured in 1793, was taken to Nice and returned to service with the French Navy. The frigate went on to play a crucial role at the action of 8 March 1795 and came under heavy fire at the Battle of the Hyères Islands trying to save a damaged French ship of the line. Alceste was eventually captured once more by the British in 1799.
Background
A few months after the entry of Great Britain into the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, a large Royal Navy fleet was sent to operate in the Mediterranean. Their principal mission was a blockade of Toulon, the main base for the French Mediterranean Fleet. The British fleet, under Lord Hood, arrived off Toulon in August 1793 to find that the port was in upheaval, conflict between Girondists and Jacobins raging against the backdrop of the Reign of Terror. Hood interceded in the dispute, persuading the Girondist faction to declare for the exiled French monarchy and invite the British to take control of the city and fleet.
Hood's forced entered Toulon, and the town was soon counter-attacked by French Republican forces. The ensuing Siege of Toulon lasted four months, the city falling to Republican attack on 18 December. At its conclusion, Hood sent boat parties into Toulon harbour to burn the French fleet, but ultimately only half of the fleet was destroyed, the remainder left damaged but repairable. Those French ships in condition to sail were removed from the harbour and distributed among the allies who had participated in the siege; the British took six frigates and gave one, Alceste, to the Kingdom of Sardinia.
In the spring of 1794, as the French repaired their damaged fleet, Hood turned his attention to the French-held island of Corsica, then in open rebellion. In the ensuing invasion of Corsica, Hood's forces allied with the Corsican irregulars to attack first San Fiorenzo and then Bastia, besieging the French garrisons of the Corsican towns and forcing them to surrender.
Martin's cruise
In Toulon, command of the French fleet had been granted to Contre-amiral Pierre Martin, who was assembling a 15-ship convoy to supply Corsica and raise the siege of Bastia. A squadron of his less damaged ships, comprising seven ships of the line and several frigates, was to escort the convoy. After Bastia fell to the British on 19 May, the original plans for the French relief convoy were abandoned, but Martin decided to offer a challenge to the British hegemony in the Ligurian Sea, and sailed with his squadron for a cruise in the region on 6 June.
It is reported that shortly after departure the French squadron sighted a 10-ship British squadron to south and formed a line of battle, but the British refused the engagement, sailed by at a distance of , turned, and disappeared the next day. There is no mention of this encounter in British histories. News of Martin's activity soon reached Hood, then at anchor with 13 ships of the line off Bastia, and he ordered Alceste, operating as part of his fleet under a Captain Ross, to sail from Bastia to the French coast to warn the British ships operating off Toulon.