While on convoy duty in the Mediterranean,
Captain John Kempthorne in the ‘Mary Rose’ was attacked by seven Algerine
corsairs. With the help of only a ketch, the ‘Roe’, they were none the less
repulsed and the whole convoy saved.
This well-finished drawing is based on Hollar’s
etching of the incident in Ogilby’s ‘Africa’ (1670), though the drawing has
more smoke and the ships are more accurate. It has a high horizon and in the
centre middle distance shows a port-broadside view of the ‘Mary Rose’. On her
port bow is a pink (copied from the incorrect etching) and the ‘Hamborough’
frigate. On her beam is a Scotch merchantman and, on her quarter, the ‘Roe’. In
line to starboard are six of the Algerines, the ‘Half Moon’, ‘Orange Tree’,
‘Seven Stars’, ‘White Horse’, ‘Hart’ and ‘Golden Lion. In the left foreground
is a French merhantman and in the right distance the Algerine ‘Rose Leaf’
pursuing a prize that was cast adrift.
After expulsion of the Arabs from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th
Century, Moslems frequently raided the coasts of Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Greece, France, England, Ireland, and Iceland and the islands of Sicily,
Sardinia, Corsica, and Cyprus, sacked their towns and carried their inhabitants
back to North Africa, where they were enslaved because they were 'infidels.
The Barbary pirates of North Africa were
sometimes called "Turkish corsairs". Operating out of North Africa they were
the terror of the Mediterranean (and elsewhere...a Lutheran preacher and his
family were once abducted from Iceland)
for several centuries. They raided European shipping and even coastal Europe, and at one point, collectively had one million
European slaves (many lighter-skinned North Africans are supposedly their
descendants). The Catholic Church had a specific order dedicated to ransoming
prisoners; one famous prisoner of the pirates was Cervantes.
Due to their usefulness as potential military allies, most European states preferred to pay them not to bother their shipping. It took two wars in the early 1800s for them to stop molesting US shipping; the Europeans paid tribute until the 1830s. However, increasing international intolerance of piracy and European conquest of Northern Africa put an end to their shenanigans.
Due to their usefulness as potential military allies, most European states preferred to pay them not to bother their shipping. It took two wars in the early 1800s for them to stop molesting US shipping; the Europeans paid tribute until the 1830s. However, increasing international intolerance of piracy and European conquest of Northern Africa put an end to their shenanigans.
Their apogee was in the early 17th Century. Between 1616 and
1642, fourteen Cornish ships were brought into Algiers alone -- out of a total
of eighty-four owned in the county in 1626.
1627 raids against Iceland which took 300+people.
1629 Barbary Coast pirates (navy) attacked the Faeroe Islands and took
some 30 women as slaves.
1630 raid against Weston-super-Mare
1631 sack of Baltimore (i.e. Baltimore, Ireland) and took 109 captives.
The Isles of Scilly which lie about thirty miles off the south west tip
of England were raided. They are strategically important as they hold the
weather gage for the English Channel. Traditionally they had been rented
from the monarch by the Godolphin family for ten pounds per year although the
rent had been paid in puffins, a bird very prolific on the islands and said to
be such a delicacy that it had been classified as fish so that it could be
eaten on Fridays.
It was as late as 1636 that Sir Francis Godolphin, his brother and their wives were captured and killed by what contemporary reports called 'Turkish pirates'. This was a generic term to cover Turk, Moors and Algerians who were frequently seen off the Isles, though their traditional prey had become the fishing fleets returning from Newfoundland. Their activities only ceased in 1816 when a combined fleet of English and Dutch ships destroyed Algiers.
It was as late as 1636 that Sir Francis Godolphin, his brother and their wives were captured and killed by what contemporary reports called 'Turkish pirates'. This was a generic term to cover Turk, Moors and Algerians who were frequently seen off the Isles, though their traditional prey had become the fishing fleets returning from Newfoundland. Their activities only ceased in 1816 when a combined fleet of English and Dutch ships destroyed Algiers.
#
In that age the technological dependence upon the wind made it quite
possible for single ships or even a handful of ships sailing together to evade
interception or even detection. A prevailing wind moving inshore that would pin
the defenders' ships in port could still be used by hostile ships at sea to
descend upon undefended parts of the coast. In just one instance, John Paul
Jones was able during the American Revolution to sail around the British Isles
in a single ship, even carrying one attack in Ireland to within sight of
Carrickfergus Castle and the town of Belfast itself. The pirates of Algiers
used vessels equipped with lateen sails rather than square sails, enabling them
to sail closer to the direction of the wind than the European vessels with their
square rigs.
The problem lies in the understanding of "maritime power" in
relation to the technology of the time. In the 16th and early 17th Century,
"command of the seas" was not even worth considering in the context
most people refer to it from the Napoleonic period to modern times. In his
seminal work, "The Influence of Sea Power on History", Alfred Thayer
Mahan dismisses the period entirely. Difficulties in accurate longitudinal
measurement (centered around accurate timekeeping), limitations in ship and
sail design in relation to the wind, poor food preservation and cost of
maintaining a navy prevented a continuous 'at sea' capability by the world's
navies until very late in the 17th Century, if not the 18th Century.
Witness the actions of the English fleet in the months prior to the
sailing of the Armada in 1588. Despite the fervent pleas from captains Howard,
Hawkins and Drake, for Elizabeth to keep the fleet in port and with skeleton
crews until the very last possible moment, primarily due to the cost and
difficulty of keeping it at 'battle readiness' for an attack they knew was
eventually coming. Even when it became apparent the battle was won in the weeks
after the last combat at the Gravelines, she put the ships to port and released
as many crews as possible. The crown simply lacked the wherewithal to maintain
such a force beyond the time of crisis.
The Spanish themselves could not hope to assemble the Armada without
purchasing and contracting merchant ships for the temporary purpose of the
invasion. They even "conscripted" an entire squadron from the Genoese
and used the captured galleons of the Portuguese fleet in the enterprise. For
Phillip II the worst tragedy of the Armada was not the missed opportunity, nor
the combat losses, nor the loss of men. What really galled him were the costs
incurred in the extended time it took to assemble, outfit and prepare the fleet
and the disastrous replacement and repair costs of the ships once they
returned.
This was just for major fleet action. Coastal raiders, navigating by
hugging the coast and landing in essentially a 'snatch' operation, would be
almost unmolested. This is why the coast of the Mediterranean is dotted with
watch towers and small forts. Sea power through the Renaissance was never
enough to stop raiders. When they moved into the Atlantic, it was more in
response to the relative "cost" of raiding the minimally fortified
coastline of the Med than the nearly defenceless coastlines mentioned above.
Additionally, since the increase of trade with the new world and Far East
increasingly became an Atlantic endeavour, it only stands to reason that the
pirates, corsairs and raiders would 'follow the money' out of the Med and into
the Atlantic.
It may have also been a "peace dividend" of sorts. The principle
source of slaves for the Turks, Christian and Pirate navies of the Med were the
captured sailors and soldiers in naval battles, either fleet or small
squadrons. As the Turkish Empire receded and the maritime operations of the Med
decreased, the supply of fresh slaves decreased dramatically.
LINK