Farewell, Toulon

Chapter 773: Farewell, Toulon

"The Navy Department has decided to transfer two more battleships, the Conqueror and the Spartan Guard, along with eight other fourth- and fifth-rate ships, into the Mediterranean Fleet...

"You must ensure total control of the Mediterranean Sea..."

Lord Hood drew a deep breath and closed the document.

Over the past month or so, eleven merchant ships had already been destroyed or captured by the French fleet.

Though he had clearly bottled up the French Mediterranean Fleet in Toulon Port, with only a few frigates harassing the Mediterranean Sea, his own escort fleets had been utterly unable to stop their slaughter.

He picked up the report beside him again.

It detailed the recent attacks on British merchant ships and had been submitted by the escorting warships.

Clearly, the French had equipped themselves with a new type of frigate of extraordinary speed, posing a tremendous challenge to his escort missions in the Mediterranean Sea.

Fortunately, the Navy Department had assigned him another batch of warships.

Once those ships were in position, the Mediterranean Fleet would have thirty-three main battleships of third-rate and above, forty fourth- and fifth-rate ships, and nearly seventy frigates.

Meanwhile, the French fleet in Marseille Port had only seventeen main warships and twenty-one fourth- and fifth-rate ships. Even adding the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet's nine main warships and twelve fourth- and fifth-rate ships, their overall scale still fell far short of his own.

In actual history, the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet at this time had possessed as many warships as Britain, perhaps even slightly more.

But Joseph had been controlling the number of large warships newly built by the French Navy over the past few years, leaving France with far fewer sailing warships than in history.

Of course, the French Navy had received compensation in the form