Back to Search Results. Evacuation of Toulon, showing many ships on fire : for key see PAH original art: drawing. At the start of the French Revolutionary War in , the British sent a squadron to the Mediterranean commanded by Samuel, Lord Hood, to assist Royalist sympathisers at Toulon resisting Republican takeover of the town and the main French Mediterranean naval base there.
The situation soon became became untenable as the Republican siege tightened and bombardment from the heights around increased, in which a young artillery officer called Napoleon Bonaparte played a notable role. Hood eventually evacuated, taking as many refugees as he could and ordering the dockyard and ships there, including those under construction to be burnt.
This was only partly achieved and ships not destroyed and subsequently completed, including the flagship 'L'Orient', formed part of the fleet that enabled Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in albeit then mostly destroyed and captured by Nelson also in the Toulon operation as captain of the 'Agamemnon' at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August that year.
This drawing by an unidentified hand, but probably an officer eyewitness in the British fleet, shows the nightime destruction accompanying the evacuation: there is also a detailed key to it which is PAH Buy a print License an image. Share: Link copied to your clipboard! Loading filters. Search Want to search our collection? Search here. Not on display.
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