Ganteaume's expedition of 1795

Ganteaume's expedition of 1795 was a French naval operation in the Aegean Sea in the autumn of 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Commanded by Commodore Honoré Ganteaume in the ship of the line Républicain, with a squadron of four frigates and two corvettes, the French force was ordered to attack First Coalition shipping in the Aegean Sea. The principal target was the Ottoman city of Smyrna, the most significant trading port of the region, Ganteaume ordered to prey on merchant shipping sailing for European destinations and in particular a large convoy due to sail to Britain.

Ganteaume sailed at the end of September 1795, narrowly avoiding contact with British naval squadrons sailing through the Sea of Sardinia. His squadron missed the Smyrna convoy, which passed westwards in late September and was successfully attacked by a different French squadron at the action of 7 October 1795. After a brief stop at Tunis, Ganteaume reached Smyrna and there lifted a British blockade of a French frigate squadron in the harbour. Cruising during November, Ganteaume caused damage to Russian, British and Neapolitan merchant shipping.

Caught in a gale, one of Ganteaume's frigates was badly damaged and while effecting repairs at the Dardanelles he learned that a British squadron under Thomas Troubridge was searching for him in the Aegean. Sending a corvette to Koroni to distract the British, Ganteaume slipped away, evading British forces to return safely to Toulon in February 1796. Some of his ships were detached to Tunis and were captured there by the British in March. The British naval position in the Mediterranean steadily became untenable over the following year, and by the end of 1796 the entire British fleet had withdrawn to an anchorage in the Tagus.