3-066-049 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French in Tunis: the town of Sfax, from the anchorage, 1881. 'The French troops and ships of war are completing the conquest of the Regency of Tunis; and the seaport town of Sfax, in the Gulf of Gabes, on the eastern coast, has been captured by bombardment and by assault'. When the Bey of Tunis signed the Bardo Treaty, in 1881, making Tunisia a protectorate, an insurrection broke out in Sfax. Six ironclads were dispatched from Toulon (Colbert, Friedland, Marengo, Trident, Revanche, Surveillante) to join the French Navy ships in Tunisian waters. In Sfax, three ironclads from the Division of the Levant were already present, together with four cannon boats. Sfax was bombarded, and on 16 July the city was taken by the French after hard fighting. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.