City Notes

Autumn 1813: How the Boka Freed Itself from the French

October 1813. A frigate, a brig, three Sicilian gunboats and some fifty soldiers sailed into the Bay of Kotor — far too few to take even a single fortress. Yet in four days, from 13 to 16 October, St George Island off Perast, Herceg Novi and the Španjola fort all surrendered. It was not their guns that won it for the British: on land the Montenegrins and the insurgent Bokelji were already waiting, and the French garrisons had no wish to fight.