The Sultan's Admiral (27 page)

Barbarossa, although his greatness was recognised by French, Spanish, and even English chroniclers during his lifetime, was to be traduced in the centuries that were to follow. The French were prominent among those who did their best to discredit him, being uneasy and ashamed for that period in their history when they had concluded their alliance with the enemy of Christian Europe. In other countries historians tended to reduce him to no more than a footnote. The eyes of Europeans were turned more and more towards the Atlantic and the new oceanic trade routes with the East. What happened in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century seemed to them relatively unimportant compared to what was happening in the Caribbean or the Pacific.

The Turks have never forgotten their debt to him. In the new kingdoms of North Africa his name is still held in the same reverence as is that of Nelson in England, or John Paul Jones in America. In Turkey he is the subject of many children’s books, and he often appears in cartoon magazines where he features as a cross between a Turkish Francis Drake and Robin Hood. His eternal appeal lies not only in his achievements, but in the fact that he is one of the most outstanding examples of “poor boy makes good.” For thousands of the underfed and underprivileged in Moslem countries he still holds out the example of hope. His life was violent, his death peaceful, and his achievements extraordinary. The Turkish annals for the year 1546 record simply: “The King of the Sea is dead.”

Anderson, R. C., Oared Fighting Ships, 1962

Bergerac, J. M. de, Memoirs d’un Protestant Condamne aux Galeres, 1757

Brantome, Abbe de, Vie des Hommes lllustres et Grands Capitaines Etrangers de son Temps, 1822

Broadley, A. M., Tunis, Past and Present, 1882

Chenier, L. S., Cruelties of the Algerian Pirates, 1816

-, Present Stale of the Empire of Morocco, 1788

Currey, E. H., Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, 1910

Dan, Pere F., Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires, 1649

Edrisi, El, Description de L'Afrique et de L'Espagne, 1866

Fisher, Sir G., Barbary Legend, 1957

Furttenbach, J., Architectura Navalis, 1629

Grammont, H. de, Histoire d’Alger, 1887

Graviere, Admiral J. de la, Les Derniers Jours de la Marine a Rames, 1885

-, Doria et Barberousse, 1886

-, Les Corsaires Barbaresques, 1887

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Haedo, D. de, Topographia e Historia General de Argel, 1612

Hajji Khalifa, History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, Translated 1831

Hammer, J. von, History of the Ottoman Empire, 1836

La Roerie, G., and Vivielle, J., Navires et Marins de la Rame a I’Helice, 1930

Lane, F. C., Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance, 1934

Lane-Poole, S., The Story of the Barbary Corsairs, 1890

Marmol, L., Descripcion de Africa, 1573

Morgan, J., A Complete History of Algiers, 1731

Newman, P. H., Ancient Sea Galleys, 1915

Pantera, Pantero, L’ArmataNavale, 1614

Rashid, Ekrem, La Vie de Khaireddine Barberousse, 1931

Rousseau, Baron A., History of the Conquest of Tunis by the Ottomans, 1883

Sandoval, Bishop P. de, Historia de Carlos Quinto, 1614

Taylor, E. G. R., The Haven-Finding Art, 1957

Torr, C., Ancient Ships, 1894

Vertot, L’Abbe de, Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte, 1726

I am indebted to the London Library for a number of the books consulted, also to the authorities of the Royal Malta Library for all their assistance over many months. Extensive use has been made of J. Morgan’s A Complete History of Algiers (1731). Morgan’s work, while discursive and amusing, is quite often unreliable. The quotations from it, accordingly, have been taken as far as possible from sections where facts can be checked against other authorities.

Since Morgan’s somewhat baroque prose seems to me to catch the flavour of the times I have also used a number of his translations from the Abbot Diego de Haedo. The latter is by far the most trustworthy authority on matters relating to Kheir-ed-Din. He lived in Algiers for many years not long after the latter’s death, and knew many of his friends, fellow seamen, and servants. Hajji Khalifa, who in the seventeenth century wrote a History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, is more reliable when it comes to details of Kheir-ed-Din’s life in Constantinople and the formation of the Ottoman Navy. For general background information and for matters of Turkish policy I am largely indebted to J. von Hammer’s monumental History of the Ottoman Empire (1836). In the notes to each chapter I have indicated in order the principal authorities from whom quotations have been made.

CHAPTER 1

J. Morgan, A Complete History of Algiers, 1731.

H. R. P. Dickson, The Arab of the Desert, 1949.

J. E. Flecker, Hassan, 1922.

For details of life aboard the galleys I have drawn largely upon the work of Pantero Pantera, L’Armata Navale (1614), also on the eighteenth-century memoirs of J. M. de Bergerac, who was condemned to serve in the French galleys for being a Protestant. J. Furttenbach’s Architectura Navalis (1629) and the works of Admiral J. de la Graviere have provided many details of construction and management.

CHAPTER 2

Sir G. Fisher, Barbary Legend, 1957.

S. Lane-Poole, Barbary Corsairs, 1890.

J. Morgan, op. cit.

CHAPTER 3 J. Morgan, op. cit.

E. H. Currey, Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, 1910.

Throughout this chapter and elsewhere, in discussing meteorology, sea and coastal conditions, etc., I have made considerable use of the invaluable section in the Admiralty Pilot for the Mediterranean, Vol. Ill, 1957, dealing with weather and local phenomena, as well as drawing upon personal experience from a number of years spent sailing in these waters.

CHAPTER 4 J. Morgan, op. cit.

CHAPTER 5 J. Morgan, op. cit.

Diego de Haedo, Topographia e Historia General de Argel, 1612.

CHAPTER 6 J. Morgan, op. cit.

Diego de Haedo, op. cit.

CHAPTER 7 J. Morgan, op. cit.

J. E. Flecker, op. cit.

Sir G. Fisher, op. cit.

CHAPTER 8 J. Morgan, op. cit.

Sir G. Fisher, op. cit.

E. H. Currey, op. cit.

The quotation relating to the suitability of different races for work in the galleys is taken from Navires et Marins de la Rame d I’Helice by G. La Roerie and J. Vivielle (1930), a book which contains a considerable amount of valuable information on early vessels.

CHAPTER 10 S. Lane-Poole, op. cit.

J. Morgan, op. cit.

J. M. de Bergerac, Memoirs d’un Protestant Condamne aux Galeres, 1757.

Rudyard Kipling, “The Finest Story in the World” from Many Inventions, 1893.

CHAPTER 11 J. Morgan, op. cit.

S. Lane-Poole, op. cit.

Sir G. Fisher, op. cit.

E. H. Currey, op. cit.

Bishop Sandoval of Pamplona, who wrote a History of Charles V (1614), is here, and elsewhere, an excellent corrective to some other authorities. He gives a very fair picture of the activities of Kheir-ed-Din and others during this period.

I have also drawn extensively throughout this chapter on Professor E. G. R. Taylor’s The Haven-Finding Art (1957), that outstanding history of marine navigational methods throughout the centuries. With regard to the use of dead reckoning in the Mediterranean, I spent some three years sailing a small yacht in most of the areas dealt with in this book without making any use of sextant or other aids except a compass and half a dozen charts. Even allowing for the fact that these modem charts were completely accurate, it proved to my own satisfaction that, provided a log is efficiently kept, it is possible to make accurate landfalls in this tideless sea with very simple methods and instruments.

CHAPTER 14 S. Lane-Poole, op. cit.

J. Morgan, op. cit.

CHAPTER 15 Sir G. Fisher, op. cit.

CHAPTER 17 E. H. Currey, op. cit.

CHAPTER 19 J. Morgan, op. cit.

CHAPTER 21

Kheir-ed-Din’s tomb is at Beshiktash, on the Pera side of the Golden Horn. When in Istanbul, I was interested to see how many “pulp” magazines and monthly strip-cartoon publications featured Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa. Over four centuries after his death he is still very much remembered in the old capital of Turkey.

Aben al Cadi, 57 Actium, Battle of, 162 Actium point, 165, 169, 175 Admiralty Pilot for the Mediterranean, 29, 83, 145,212 Adriatic Sea, 148, 150, 151, 161, 168

Aegadian Islands, 34, 40, 131, 134 Aegean Islands, 14, 15, 149, 156, 157, 158, 159 Aegean Sea, 19, 25, 41, 114, 118,

120, 124, 127, 130, 134, 149,

152, 157, 159, 161, 173, 201,

203

Aetna, Mount, 132 Ajim channel, 38 Albania, 97, 151 Alexandria, 126

Algeria, 76, 78, 80, 83, 100, 110, 111, 119, 120, 135, 147,205 Algiers, x, xi, 23, 33, 41, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80,

81, 82, 83, 84, 86-87, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 102, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 120, 122 127, 135, 139, 144, 145, 147, 150, 155, 168, 187, 188-189, 191, 192, 195, 200, 205, 206, 211 Algiers, Bay of, 82, 84, 188 Algiers, Penon of, 111-114 Alicante Bay, 46 Alicudi, 35, 100 Amalfi, 132

Ambracian Gulf, 161, 162, 169 Amorgos, 130 Anacapri, 132 Anatolia, 97, 124 Ancient Ships (Torr), 89 Andros, 17, 159 Antipaxos Island, 164, 168 Antony, 162, 165, 175 Apulia, 152, 156, 161 Arab science, 125-128 Architectura Navalis (Furttenbach), 212

Armada, Spanish, 181, 191 Arta, Bay of, 164 Arta, Gulf of, 161, 165, 166, 168, 173

Aruj Barbarossa, ix, x, 36, 39, 49,

50, 51, 55, 88, 101, 136, 188, 201; Algerian plot against, 63-65; ambitions, 40, 58; ancestry, 16-17; and attack on Algiers, 67-68; attracts Turkish sea captains, 41; battles Knights of St. John, 19-23; battles papal galleys, 3-12; birth, 16; death,

74, 77, 80; defeats Zouaves, 57; in Djerba, 37, 38-39; in Djidjelli, 53; early battle technique, 28; early career, 19-25; family background, 18-19; and first siege of Bougie, 42-43; and galleots, 27; as galley slave, 21-22; last battle, 73-74; loses arm, 45; as master of Algeria, 70-71; as Mediterranean power, 65; murders Kara Hassan, 60; murders Sheikh Selim, 62; parents, 16; personality, 56; physical appearance, 18, 74; and raid of 1514, 53-55; ransomed, 23; and second siege of Bougie, 51-52; and siege of Algiers, 60-61; takes Algiers, 62; takes Tenez, 69; takes Tlemcen, 70; and threat to Tlemcen, 72-73; in Tunis, 26, 34, 36 Atalanta, 73 Athens, 150, 159 Augustus Caesar, 162, 164, 165 Aydin Rais, 101, 102, 111,1 12,

113, 141; raids by, 101-102,

104-110 Azores, 109

Babor, Mount, 42 Bacon, Roger, 43 Baghdad, 143 Bahiret el Bu Grara, 38

Bajazet II, 28

Balearic Islands, 41, 54, 96, 102, 104, 144, 145 Barbarossa, Aruj: see Aruj Barbarossa

Barbarossa, Kheir-ed-Din: see Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa Barbarossa’s Cave, ix Barbarossa’s Lookout, ix Barbary Corsairs, The (Lane-Poole), 23, 166, 168, 189 Barbary Legend (Fisher), 154, 195 Barcelona, 81, 104, 105, 139 Beni Abbas, 111 Berbers, 33, 38, 45, 52, 53, 65,

188, 191

Bergerac, Jean Marteilhe de, 176, 212

Beshiktash, 216 Bizerta, 33 Black Sea, 186 Bologna, 102 Bon, Cape, 33, 137 Bone, 33, 95, 139, 142, 145 Bonifacio, 100 Bonifacio, Straits of, 120 Bosphorus, 120, 202, 203 Bougie, 33, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47, 51,

52, 53. 56, 59, 61 Bougie, Bay of, 43 Bourbon, Frangois de, 197 Brantome, Abbe de: quoted, 187,

203

Brindisi, 151, 152 Bulgaria, 184

Byzantine Empire, 14, 95, 116,

152, 157, 194

Cadiz, 90

Cagliari, 138, 139

Calabria, 28, 36, 96, 97, 100, 196

Candia, 160

Cape Bon peninsula, 137 Capello, Vincenzo, 162, 163, 164, 181 Capraia, 3 Carbon, Cape, 41 Carthage, 13, 33, 34 Castelnuovo, 187

Catalina (mother of Barbarossas),

18, 19 Catalonia, 200 Cephallonia, 164

Cervantes, Miguel de, 103 Cetraro, 132 Ceuta, 32

Chardin, Sir J.: quoted, 126 Charles V, 71-72, 75, 79, 80, 83, 84-85, 86, 102, 105, 112, 117, 119-120, 122, 135, 137-138,

139, 141, 142, 143, 144, 147,

155, 161, 162, 163, 164, 183, 184, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192,

193, 195, 197, 198, 200, 201, 205; attacks Tunis, 137-142; defeated at Algiers, 187-192; gathers allied fleet, 162-163; takes Tunis, 142-143 Charybdis, 131 Chergui, 33

Chesneau, Jean; quoted, 123-124

Chios, 17, 157

Civitavecchia, 3

Clauda, 160

Clement Vll, 102, 112

Cleopatra, 162, 175

Col, 95

Colonna, Vespasio, 133 Comares, Marquis of, 71, 72, 73, 79, 80, 83 Complete History of Algiers, A (Morgan), 211 Condalmiero, Alessandro, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 206 Constantine, 95, 120 Constantinople, 14, 15, 17, 36, 44,

77,79, 91, 103, 112, 118, 120,

121, 123, 125, 131, 132, 134,

135, 144, 147, 148, 150. 151,

153, 155, 159, 173, 185, 186,

197, 201, 203, 204, 211; fall of, 24, 32 Cordova, 75

Corfu, 150, 152, 154, 162, 163,

164, 165, 181, 183, 184 Corinth, Gulf of, 117, 148 Coron, 117

Corsica, 3, 7, 36, 96, 97, 136 Cortes, Hernando, 188 Cossier, Chevalier, 141 Cresques, Jafuda, 125 Crete, 149, 160, 161 Crete, Sea of, 160 Crusade, Fourth, 14, 116 Currey, Hamilton: quoted, 120,

134, 165, 173, 182

Cyclades, 159

Dalmatia, 149 Dan, Father F., 102, 104 Dardanelles, 15, 17, 151 DemataBay, 171, 174,175, 178 Dia, 160

Djerba, xi, 25, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40,

41, 42, 43, 50, 51, 52, 77, 82, 92,

99, 205

Djidjelli, 33, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 65, 82, 95 Dodecanese islands, 19 Don Quixote de la Mancha (Cervantes), 103 Dorea. Admiral Andrea, x, xi, 49,

51, 81, 88, 122, 123, 138, 145,

150, 151, 152, 161, 162, 163,

165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171,

172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177,

178, 180, 181, 187, 188, 189,

191; defeats Kheir-ed-Din, 49-50; joins Charles V, 117; and Preveza campaign, 167-185; at Shershell, 115, 116-117, 118 Doria, Admiral Luciano, 48 Doria et Barberousse (De la Graviere), 180 Doro Channel, 159 Douglas, Norman: quoted, 196,