Captain of the Gulf Captain of the Gulf The Captain of the Gulf (; ) was a senior naval command of the Republic of Venice. The post was established around 1330, when a squadron of ships was set up to patrol the "Gulf of Venice" (the Adriatic Sea) and provide protection for commerce there. Neither the squadron nor the post of Captain were permanent. Every winter, the standing committees of the Great Council of Venice established the annual orders for the so-called "guard fleet", or "fleet of the Gulf". The Great Council then voted on the proposals, the size of the fleet, and the
Fall of the Republic of Venice empire, in return for French possession of the Austrian Netherlands. On the same day, however, events precipitated themselves at Verona. The population, and a part of the Venetian troops quartered there, tired of French arrogance and oppression, rose in revolt. The episode, known as the "Veronese Easter", quickly reduced the occupation troops to the defensive, reducing them to the city's forts. On 20 April, although the ban on foreign warships entering the Lagoon of Venice had recently been reiterated, the French frigate "Le Libérateur d'Italie" ("Italy's Liberator") tried to enter the Porto di Lido, the northern entry to the Lagoon.