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Adriatic campaign
Part of the of Napoleonic Wars
La Pomone contre les frégates HMS Alceste et Active Pierre Julien Gilbert
Date 1807 — 1814 Location Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Sea Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom Irregular Greek and Albanian nationalists	French Empire Kingdom of Italy Kingdom of Naples
Commanders
William Hoste and others	Bernard Dubourdieu † and others

The Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars was a minor theatre of war in which a succession of small British Royal Navy squadrons and independent cruisers harried the combined naval forces of the First French Republic, the Kingdom of Italy, the Illyrian Provinces and the Kingdom of Naples between 1807 and 1814 in the Adriatic Sea during the Napoleonic Wars. Italy, Naples and Illyria were all controlled either directly or via proxy by the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized them following the dismemberment of the Austrian Empire in the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.

Control of the Adriatic brought numerous advantages to the beleagured French Navy, allowing rapid transit of troops from Italy to the Balkans and Austria for camapaigning in the east and giving France possession of numerous ship-building facilities, particularly the large naval yards in Venice. From 1807, when the Treaty of Tilsit that precipitated the Russian withdrawal of from the Septinsular Republic, the French Navy gained a region in which they had naval supremacy. The Treaty of Tilsit also contained a secret clause that guaranteed French assistance in any war fought between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire. To fulfil this clause, Napoleon would have to secure his supply lines to the east by developing the French armies in Illyria. This required control of the Adriatic against the increasingly aggressive British raiders. The Royal Navy determined to stop these troop convoys from reaching Illyria and also sought to break French hegemony in the region, resulting in a struggle for supremacy.

The ensuring campaign was not uniform; British and French forces were limited by the dictates of the wider Mediterranean and global conflict. Nevertheless, both nations maintained forces in the Adriatic that struggled for the upper hand between 1807 and 1811. Although numerous commanders held commands in the region, the two most important personalities were those of William Hoste and Bernard Dubourdieu, whose exploits were celebrated in their respective national newspapers during 1810 and 1811. The campaign between these two officer reached a head at the Battle of Lissa in March 1811, when Dubourdieu was killed and his squadron defeated by Hoste in a bloody action at which Hoste was badly wounded.

The result of the action was British dominance in the Adriatic for the remainder of the war. Invasion forces steadily reduced French islands and British raiding parties devastated the local trade and stormed coastal towns across the Sea. French plans against the Ottoman Empire were cancelled and the area became less important, although no less active. British forces continued operations until the advancing armies of the Sixth Coalition drove the French from the shores of the Adriatic in late 1813, British troops and squadrons assisting in the sieges of several important French cities, such as Fiume and Trieste.

Contents 1 Background 2 Opening exchanges 3 Invasions of the Ionian Islands 4 French reinforcements 5 Battle of Lissa 6 Continued British dominance

[edit] Background

There had been a French presence in the Adriatic Sea since the Treaty of Campo Formio that marked the end of the War of the First Coalition in 1797. This treaty confirmed the destruction of the independent Venetian State and the division of its territory between the French Republic and the Austrian Empire. One of France's grants from this division were the seven Ionian Islands that controlled the entrance to the Adriatic. These French outposts in the Eastern Mediterranean were considered a threat by both the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire and in 1800 a united Russian and Ottoman force attacked the massively fortified French citadel on Corfu, which fell after a four month siege. The victors took possession of the islands and from them created the Septinsular Republic, nominally Ottoman, practically independent and guaranteed by the Russian Navy.

On mainland Europe, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as the ruler of the new French Empire resulted in a new conflict, the War of the Third Coalition, which ended disastrously for the Austrian and Russian allied armies at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. The Treaty of Pressburg that took the Austrians out of the war created two French client monarchies in Italy, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Naples and also left French troops holding substantial parts of the Eastern coastline of the Adriatic. These holdings significantly increased French naval interest in the Adriatic, which was well supplied with excellent ports and ship-building facilities, particulaly at Venice.

The Russian garrison on Corfu, supplied and augmented with a powerful naval squadron, effectively blocked French use of the Adriatic by sealing the entrance through the Straits of Otranto. French military concerns were also directed further north at this time, ultimately resulting in the War of the Fourth Coalition during 1806 and 1807 that saw Napoleon's armies overrun Prussia and force the Russians to sign the Treaty of Tilsit on 7 July 1807. One of the minor clauses of the treaty transferred the Septinsular Republic back into French hands, the Russians withdrawing completely from the Adriatic to supplement their forces in the Aegean Sea, where they had recently won the Battle of Athos against the Ottoman Navy. This withdrawal was to support a hidden clause in the treaty that guaranteed French support in the continuing Russian war with the Ottomans fought in the Balkans.

[edit] Opening exchanges

Following the Russian withdrawal, the French immediately dispatched garrisons to the Ionian Islands, rapidly amassing over 7,400 French and Neapolitan troops on Corfu alone. This effectively turned the Adriatic into a sheltered French sea from which they could be free to dispatch raiders against British convoys, colonies and Royal Navy blockade squadrons, which had effectively controlled the Mediterranean since the Battle of Trafalgar two years earlier. The Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet responded rapidly to this threat, and in November 1807 the fourth rate ship HMS Glatton and several smaller craft were blockading Corfu, capturing several hundred reinforcements in seized French and Italian shipping. Encouraged by the blockade of Corfu, small British raiders began entering the Adriatic to prey on French convoys along the Italian coast.

One of the first actions of British forces in the region was the seizure of the small Dalmatian Island of Lissa, for use as a safe harbour deep in nominally French-controlled waters. The largely uninhabited island was rapidly developed into an effective naval base with the construction of the town Port St. George by British sailors in the island's most sheltered anchorage. Throughout 1807, British ships stationed in the Adriatic were relatively small and their ompact consequently minor. British raiders also limited their attacks on the Illyrian coast to purely military objectives, with the intention of maintaining the support of the local population, who frequently supplied the British cruisers with food, water and naval stores. The French Navy did not expend significant resources on the Adriatic at this time, only continuing to convoy troops and supplies to Illyria and Corfu. They did however place significant orders at the Venetian naval yards, intending to build forces in the region with locally produced and crewed vessels.

The first major British deployment into the Adriatic came in May 1808, when the British frigate HMS Unite under Captain Patrick Campbell arrived off Venice. During May, Campbell captured three well armed Italian brigs and severely disrupted French and Italian shipping off the busiest Adriatic seaport.^[1] The French response to these depredations was to dispatch the frigate Var to Venice, an action which had little appreciable effect on British operations. British activity in the Adriaitc was curtailed during the year by the War with the Ottoman Empire, which absorbed much of the British naval resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.^[2]

[edit] Invasions of the Ionian Islands

The British presence in the Adriatic was greatly strengthened in 1809, with the arrival of the frigates HMS Amphion under William Hoste and HMS Belle Poule under James Brisbane, accompanied by the brig HMS Redwing. This increased force made an immediate impact on French shipping in the Adriatic, attacking coastal convoys and positions. In February the Var was captured by Belle Poule and the French responded by dispatching the frigates Danaé and Flore to Corfu with supplies. These reinforcements were attacked as they arrived by HMS Topaze, but successfully reached the island and later sailed north to augment French defences in the Adriatic.

Throughout the year British attacks intensified, driven by Captain Hoste operating from the base at Lissa. Raids on the Italian coastline seized dozens of coastal merchant vessels and gunboats while parties of marines and sailors even landed at coastal towns, driving off the defenders and blowing up the fortifications before returning to their ships. These successes in the face of almost non-exisitant French opposition encouraged the British commander in the Mediterranean, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, to dispatch a force to eliminate the French garrisons on the Ionian Islands. This force, lead at sea by Captain James Spranger in HMS Warrior and on land by John Oswald, succeeded in landing on the island of Cephalonia on 1 October and forcing the Neapolitan garrison to surrender within hours. Within days the neighbouring islands of Zante and Ithaca had also surrendered and the detached frigate HMS Spartan affected a successful invasion Cerigo shortly afterwards.

These invasions were extended into occupations that continued even after the London government forced troop withdrawals from the region later in the year. Local Greek nationalists and brigands were formed into the 1st Greek Light Infantry under initially John Oswald and later Richard Church. This was the first modern independant Greek military unit, and its existance encourged other Greek nationalists to join or support the British forces in the region, forming the core of what was to become the United States of the Ionian Islands. During the autumn of 1809, Oswald repeatedly requested permission to invade Corfu, the largest and most heavily defended of the islands. The troop withdrawals late in the year ended this ambition, but following the sudden death of Collingwood in March 1810 his temporary replacement Thomas Byam Martin detached a squadron for an operation against Santa Maura. Landings were effected on 22 March, and the island surrendered on 16 April after an eight day siege of the prinicple fortress, the attackers considerably aided by the desertion of the garrison's native Greek troops to Oswald's Greek Light Infantry.

[edit] French reinforcements

The conclusion of the War of the Fifth Coalition in late 1809 changed the situation in the Adriatic slightly as it confirmed French posession of the Illyrian Provinces and removed any Austrian threat to the Adriatic seaports from land. It also freed the French Army to operate against the Ottoman Empire as intended in the Treaty of Tilsit. It did not however affect the British frigates raiding in the Adriatic under the command of William Hoste, who was now launching coordinated raids across the Adriatic

In the late summer the first response from the French Navy was recieved, with the arrival of Bernard Dubordieu from Toulon in Favorite. Dubourdieu was considered one of the more successful frigate commanders in the French Navy, and he was accompanied by several other French frigates who reinforced the Italian forces at Venice. With a combined squadron of five frigates and several smaller vessels, Dubourdieu posed a threat to Hoste's three frigates based on Lissa, prompting Hoste to maintain a careful watch on their movements. Moving to Chiozzo and then to Ancona, Dubourdieu's squadron was shadowed by HMS Active and HMS Amphion, who evaded his efforts to drive them off on 29 September.

In early October, Hoste resupplied at Lissa and returned to Ancona, now accompanied by HMS Cerberus. Discovering Dubourdieu and his squadron missing, Hoste pursued the French on their presumed journey to Corfu, acting on information supplied by a passing Sicilian privateer. This information was incorrect, and Hoste's foray southwards opened Lissa to attack, as Dubourdieu had planned. Landing on the island with overwhelming force on 21 October, Dubourdieu seized the shipping in the harbour, but was unable to find the island's garrison, which had retreated to the mountains on seeing the size of the French force. Seven hours after arriving, local fishermen arrived in the port bringing information on the proximity of Hoste's squadron, which had now discovered Dubourdieu's plan and was returning to Lissa. The French immediately withdrew to Ancona, pursued closely by Cerberus. To defend against a repeat of this action and to guard against intervention by the ship of the line Rivoli, which was completing at Venice, the British Mediterranean Fleet sent HMS Montagu to Lissa. The arrival of such a powerful vessel stifled any further French initiatives during the year, allowing Hoste to raid unchecked along the Italian coastline.

[edit] Battle of Lissa

In early 1811, as Hoste's frigates raided the Italian coast, Montagu left the Adriatic. With Cerberus and Active attacking the ports of Pescaro and Ortona in February, Dubourdieu seized the opportunity to prepare a second attack on Lissa, this time with the ambition of permanently seizing the island and garrisoning it with Italian troops. Departing Ancona on 11 March with six frigates, numerous support craft and over 500 soldiers, Dubourdieu descended on Lissa overnight, hoping to surprise the defenders. This ambition was in vain, as Hoste was already at sea when the French squadron arrived, his four ships heavily outnumbered by the French.

Maintaining a close line of battle, Hoste forced Dubourdieu to attack him directly, attempting to board Hoste's Amphion with the Italian soliders carried aboard his flagship. Hoste was prepared for this, and fired a carronade containing over 750 musket balls into Dubourdieu's ship at point blank range. The shot killed Dubourdieu and his officers, creating confusion in the French squadron that resulted in Favorite being wrecked on Lissa's coastline. Hoste then engaged the following Flore and Bellone directly forcing them both to surrender. The head of his line, lead by the sixth rate HMS Volage engaged the three remaining French and Italian ships, driving off Danaé and Carolina and capturing Corona.

The victory at the Battle of Lissa confirmed British dominance in the region for the next three years, the French unable to replace the losses in ships and experienced officers inflicted at the action. Attempts to replace these losses and maintain the conovys that supplied Corfu were launched from Toulon during the spring of 1811, but few reached the Adriatic, stopped by the British blockade of the Southern French ports.^[3] In early May, shore parties from Belle Poule and the newly arrived HMS Alceste under Captain Murray Maxwell landed at Parenza and destroyed a brig bringing supplies to the survivors of Lissa, and a party from Active did the same at Ragosniza in July.^[4] In November the French frigate Corcyere was captured by Eagle in an attempt to transport supplies to Corfu.

The most significant French attempt to bring more forces to the Adriatic in 1811 was made in late November when two frigates and an armed storeship reached Corfu and then attempted to transport over 100 cannon to Venice, where several new ships were being constructed. This convoy was spotted and reported to the British squadron at Lissa, now commanded by Maxwell in the absence of Hoste, who was still recovering from the wounds he recieved at the battle eight months earlier. Maxwell pursued the French convoy and captured one frigate and the storeship in a lengthy action, only one of the convoy reaching safety.

[edit] Continued British dominance

French hopes of regaining supremacy in the Adriatic now rested on the Rivoli, a ship of the line constructed to high standard at Venice. Although her completion had been delayed by almost two years, British intelligence was aware of her condition and had periodically supplied ships of the line to observe her movements and engage her if the opportunity should arise. In February 1812, Rivoli departed Venice for the first time, destined for Pola on her maiden voyage. Waiting for Rivoli was the British HMS Victorious, commanded by John Talbot, which had been briefly hidden by fog and was thus forced to chase Rivoli as the French ship attempted to escape. The chase continued for most of the night of 22 February, but Victorious finally caught her opponent in the early morning and in a four hour battle captured her with heavy casualties on both sides.

The loss of Rivoli was the end of the final French effort to contest British dominance of the Adriatic. Although the campaign in the theatre would continue until 1814, British raiders attacked French convoys, forts, islands and even significant ports with impunity. In the summer of 1812, William Hoste returned as captain of HMS Bacchante and attacked Rovigno before leading a small squadron on a camapign against the Apulian Coast, burning a convoy near Vasto. The freedom with which British cruisers could operate within the Adriatic attracted more independantly sailing ships, such as HMS Eagle which arrived off Ancona in September and blockaded the city, destroying coastal conovys unopposed.

In early 1813 the first significant squadron was detached from the British Mediterranean Fleet to operate in the Adriatic, under the command of Admiral Thomas Fremantle. This force was ordered to seize or destroy all French islands, forts and outposts, disrupt coastal trade and assist the allied armies of the War of the Sixth Coalition. Under Fremantle's orders the islands or coastal towns of Lagosta, Curzola, Carlopago, Cherso, Dignano, Giuppana and Mezzo were invaded, and either held by British forces or had their shore facilities slighted to prevent their use by the French. Raiding activities also continued, Hoste operating off Otranto with a squadron of ships, attacking coastal convoys and the towns of St Cataldo, Karlebago and Gela-Nova. At the opposite end of the Adriatic, the sloop HMS Weasel raided a bay near Spalato and was very nearly captured in the ensuing combat.

In June, Fremantle led a large squadron which included Eagle and HMS Elizabeth against the important port-city of Fiume. After a heavy cannoande and storm the city's defences fell, Fremantle seizing or burning 90 vessels from the harbour and huge quantities of naval stores.