on 1 november 1795 hotham was replaced by vice-admiral sir john jervis, commanding 18 ships of the line, and towards the end of the year martin was replaced by vice-amiral françois-paul brueys, commanding 15 ships of the line. jervis was also concerned by the presence of seven spanish ships of the line at cartagena; the spanish were still neutral, but their relationship with france was becoming closer. in early 1796 jervis sent a number of detached squadrons to sea in the spring; vice-admiral william waldegrave took a squadron to tunis and violated tunisian neutrality by seizing three small french ships in the harbour. a squadron under nelson was sent to the italian coast, where the montenotte campaign, led by napoleon bonaparte, was inflicting severe defeats on the austrian and sardinian armies. on 10 april nelson's force was positioned to provide artillery support for the battle of voltri, only to witness an austrian failure to inflict serious damage on the retreating french. on 25 april a supply convoy was destroyed at finale ligure, and on 31 april napoleon's siege train was captured on board a coastal convoy at oneglia, the loss of which later had a major impact on french efficiency at the siege of mantua. jervis remained off toulon; on 11 april hms was accidentally burned off san fiorenzo, and in june jervis sent "southampton" on a successful attack on a french corvette off the îles d'hyères.