a number of french ships had been absent from toulon when the uprising occurred and remained active at sea while hood's forces occupied the city. one such squadron was under the command of commodore jean-baptiste perrée, comprising 40-gun frigates "melpomène" and "minerve", 36-gun frigate "fortunée", 28-gun frigate "mignonne" and 14-gun brig-sloop "hazard". in october these ships had sailed to tunis with a larger squadron before detaching on a mission to land reinforcements for the garrison on corsica.