Childers Incident

One of the strongest hotbeds of republican activity was the principal Atlantic naval base of the French Navy at Brest in Brittany, the scene of a significant mutiny in 1790.

On 2 January a small British warship, the 14-gun brig HMS Childers under Commander Robert Barlow, was ordered to enter the Roadstead of Brest to reconnoitre the state of readiness of the French fleet.

The incident was of itself inconsequential, with minimal damage and no casualties on either side, but it marked a symbolic moment in the deterioration of relations between Britain and France in the approach to war, which broke out on 1 February 1793.

Although unsympathetic to the violence and upheaval of the French Revolution, Britain's Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was unwilling to go to war alongside the absolutist monarchies of Europe.

As Childers entered the Goulet one of the forts covering the entrance from the southern shore fired a shot at a distance of 0.75 nautical miles (1.39 km) which passed over the brig into the sea beyond.

[9] Assuming this warning shot had been fired in the belief that his brig, which was not flying a flag, may be an enemy vessel, Barlow ordered the British naval ensign and the pennant of the Channel Fleet run up.

Anchoring at the small Cornish port of Fowey, Barlow took an express coach directly to the Admiralty in London,[8] arriving on 11 January carrying the 48 lb (22 kg) cannonball as evidence of the incident and what British historian William James called the "strong spirit of hostility on the part of the new republic".