The fierce opposition of the Christian states of Europe with the Barbary pirates, which was described in previous articles, continued throughout the 17th century. At this time, the Maghreb corsairs were already actively operating in the Atlantic Ocean, making raids to the shores of Britain, Ireland, Iceland, the Canary Islands and the island of Madeira. In the article "European corsairs of the Islamic Maghreb" we talked about the "exploits" of Simon de Danser and Peter Easton who went beyond Gibraltar, the expeditions of Murat Reis the Younger to the shores of Iceland, Ireland and England. But there were others. In 1645, a renegade from Cornwall even visited his hometown - only to capture several hundred prisoners in it, including 200 women. Pirates from Sale also captured the ships of European settlers sailing to the shores of America. So, in 1636 their prey was the ship "Little David", on which 50 men and 7 women were sent to Virginia. And on October 16, 1670, 40 men and 4 women were captured already on a French ship.
The Ottoman Empire was weakening before our eyes, and the rulers of the Maghreb states paid less and less attention to the instructions from Constantinople. Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli from Turkish provinces turned into semi-independent pirate states, which claimed to establish their own rules of war in the Mediterranean.
France and the pirate states of the Maghreb
At this time, the relations of the pirate states of the Maghreb with France sharply deteriorated, which until then were rather friendly: despite individual excesses and constant friction, since 1561, a flourishing French trading post existed on the border of Algeria and Tunisia, in which buying operations were quite legally carried out. looted goods. Times changed, however, and the French were forced to seek an alliance with their traditional enemies, the Spanish. In 1609, a Franco-Spanish squadron attacked Goleta, where many Tunisian ships were destroyed. This did not solve the problem of Barbary piracy, and on September 19, 1628, the French signed a peace treaty with Algeria, according to which they were obliged to pay an annual tribute of 16 thousand livres. The French trading post resumed its activities on the North African coast, and the Maghreb corsairs, including the Algerian ones, continued to attack the French ships.
Not relying on their own government, one of the "noble" French families began their own war against the pirates. A ship equipped with private funds in 1635 captured two Algerian ships, but that was where the luck ended: in a battle against two corsair ships, to which five more came to help, the French were defeated, captured and sold into slavery. The surviving sailors of that ship returned home only after 7 years.
France began large-scale hostilities against the corsairs of the Maghreb during the time of Louis XIV, who organized 9 campaigns against Algeria. During the first of them, in 1681, a squadron of the Marquis de Kufne attacked a pirate base on the Tripolitan island of Szio: the walls of the fortress were destroyed by bombing, 14 pirate ships were burned in the harbor.
In 1682, Algerian corsairs captured a French warship, whose crew was sold into slavery. Admiral Abraham Duconne, in retaliation, attacked Algeria. During the shelling, he used new explosive shells, which caused tremendous damage to the city, but could not force the fortress to capitulate. His actions in 1683-1684. were more successful: Algeria was now fired upon by mortars of specially created "bombing galliots".
Dei Baba Hassan wavered, began negotiations with Dukone and even released some of the French prisoners (142 people).
But the fighting spirit of the defenders of the fortress was very high, they were not going to surrender. Hassan's behavior sparked an outcry in Algeria, and the cowardly dey was overthrown. Admiral Ali Metzomorto, who replaced him as ruler of Algeria, told Duconus that, if the shelling continued, he would order the fortress guns to be loaded with the French who remained at his disposal - and fulfilled his promise: the role of the "core" had to be played not only by the prisoners, but also by the consul … The fierceness reached its peak: the city, almost destroyed by Ducone, held out until the French ships had consumed all the shells.
On October 25, 1683, Ducony was forced to withdraw his ships to Toulon. Another admiral, de Tourville, managed to force Algeria to peace, who led the French squadron to Algeria in April 1684. With the mediation of the Ambassador of the Ottoman Port, an agreement was concluded according to which the Algerians freed all Christians and paid compensation to the French citizens for the lost property.
In 1683 and 1685. in a similar way, the French bombarded the harbor of Tripoli - and also without much success.
The peace agreement with Algeria was violated already in 1686, when attacks on French ships were renewed, and the new consul was arrested and thrown into prison. Tourville, already familiar to us, in 1687 led his ships to bombard Tripoli and defeated the Algerian squadron in a naval battle.
And the French fleet was led by Admiral d'Esgre to storm Algeria in 1688. Here the events of 5 years ago were repeated: the d'Esgre squadron subjected Algeria to devastating bombings, during one of which even Ali Metzomorto was wounded, the Algerians loaded their guns with the French - the consul, two priests, seven captains and 30 sailors were used as cannonballs. D'Esgre responded by executing 17 corsairs, whose bodies he sent on rafts to the city's harbor. It was not possible to capture Algeria or force it to surrender this time too.
These victories, nevertheless, did not have much significance. And the defeat of the French fleet (commanded by Tourville) in the naval battle against the British at La Hogue in 1692 led to a new round of confrontation between the Barbary pirates and France in the Mediterranean.
Actions of British and Dutch squadrons
In 1620, England, Spain and Holland sent their battle squadrons to the Mediterranean Sea: there were no significant clashes with the ships of the Barbary pirates that year. The British mainly patrolled the caravan routes. The shelling of Algeria, undertaken by the Spaniards, almost did not damage the fortress. The attack of the English fire ships in May 1621 was unsuccessful due to the rain, which helped the Algerians to extinguish, the ships were on fire.
More effective were the actions of the Dutch admiral Lambert, whose squadron entered the Mediterranean in 1624. Each time, capturing a pirate ship, its ships approached Algeria or Tunisia and hung prisoners on the yards in view of the city. These psychological attacks, which lasted until 1626, forced Algeria and Tunisia to release the Dutch captives and recognize the country's merchant ships as neutral.
In 1637, an English squadron blocked the port of Salé in Morocco: 12 pirate ships were destroyed and an agreement was reached to free 348 Christian slaves.
In 1655, the British managed to burn 9 corsair ships in the Tunisian harbor of Porto Farina, but both in Tunisia and in Algeria, English prisoners had to be ransomed, spending 2700 pounds sterling on this.
In 1663, a significant event took place: the government of the Ottoman Port officially allowed the British to carry out punitive operations against the Algerian pirates, thereby, in fact, recognizing the non-control of Algeria by the sultan's power. And in 1670, the allied Anglo-Dutch squadron under the command of the Duke of York (future King James II) destroyed seven large pirate ships, four of which were 44-gun, in the battle at Cape Sparel (Spartel - about 10 km from the city of Tangier).
The following year, a new British squadron burned seven more ships, one of which was the commander-in-chief of the Algerian fleet. The corsairs of this state temporarily weakened the onslaught, but the pirates of Tunisia and Tripoli continued to rule in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1675, a squadron of Admiral Narbro bombarded Tripoli and burned four ships, forcing the Pasha of this city to agree to pay British merchants compensation in the amount of 18 thousand pounds. But by this time, the Algerians had restored their activity, who in 1677-1680. captured 153 British merchant ships. Attacks were carried out until 1695, when Captain Beach's squadron ravaged the coast of Algeria, destroying 5 ships and forcing the local pasha to conclude another agreement.
Barbary pirates in the 18th century
At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, relations between the Islamic states of the Maghreb worsened. This has caused several wars. In 1705, dei Algeria Haji Mustafa attacked Tunisia and defeated the army of the local bey Ibrahim, but could not take the city (Tunisia was subordinated to Algeria in 1755). And in 1708, the Algerians recaptured Oran from the Spaniards.
In 1710, three thousand Turks were killed in Algeria, and in 1711 the last Ottoman governor was exiled to Constantinople - Algeria, in fact, became an independent state ruled by deeds chosen by the Janissaries.
Meanwhile, the qualitative composition of the military fleets of European states has been steadily changing. Galleys were replaced by large sailing ships, which no longer used the labor of rowers. The first to stop using galleys in Spain - in the 20s of the XVIII century. In France, the last galleys were decommissioned in 1748. Sailing and rowing ships were still used by the Islamic states of the Maghreb and Venice, which until the end of the 18th century kept a squadron of galleys on an island in Corfu.
And in the Islamic states of the "Barbarian Coast" at that time one could observe some degradation of the combat fleet. In Algeria, for example, the number of large sailing ships decreased, of which there were quite a few in the 17th century. Now the basis of the combat fleet was made up of small sailing-rowing kicks, shebeks and galiots, perfectly adapted to operations in coastal waters, but not suitable for sailing in the ocean.
So, the fleet of Algeria in 1676 consisted of two 50-gun ships, five 40-gun, one 38-gun, two 36-gun, three 34-gun, three 30-gun, one 24-gun and a large number of smaller ships. armed with 10 to 20 guns. And in 1737, the largest warships in Algeria had 16 and 18 guns. On kicks there were from eight to ten guns, on shebeks - 4-6, galiots carried from one to six guns. In 1790, the largest ship in Algeria had 26 guns.
The fact is that, after the capture of Gibraltar by the Anglo-Dutch squadron in 1704, the corsairs of Algeria and Tunisia could no longer freely go to the Atlantic, and concentrated on robbing merchant ships in the Mediterranean. And, in order to rob merchant ships here, large warships were not needed. The corsairs took refuge from the European military squadrons in shallow water or in their well-fortified ports, which they could not take for a long time. Yielding to the European fleets in size, tonnage and armament of ships, the pirates of the Maghreb still ruled the Mediterranean Sea with almost impunity, the Christian states of Europe demonstrated their powerlessness in the fight against them.
In the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, corsairs of Morocco, based in Salé, were still trying to hunt: this city had a squadron in which there were from 6 to 8 frigates and 18 galleys.
The Salé pirates honestly paid "taxes" to the Moroccan sultans, and for the time being they were not particularly interested in the origin of the funds coming into their treasury. But the key port of the Moroccan coast - Ceuta, was in the hands of the Europeans (at first it was owned by Portugal, then - by Spain), so the Sali did not feel very confident either.
The main opponents of the Barbary pirates at that time were Spain, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Venice and the Order of Malta.
In 1775, the Spaniards sent an army of 22 thousand soldiers against Algeria, but could not capture the fortress. In 1783, their fleet shelled Algeria, but this citadel of pirates, already independent from the Ottoman Empire, did not manage to inflict much damage.
In 1784, the allied squadron, consisting of Spanish, Portuguese, Neapolitan and Maltese ships, did not achieve much success against Algeria.
Unexpected battle of Russian sailors with pirates of the Maghreb
In 1787, another Russian-Turkish war began (the 7th in a row, if you count from the Astrakhan campaign of Kasim Pasha). By this time, the Russian troops and the Russian fleet had already won victories that forever entered the history of military art.
A. V. Suvorov defeated the Turks on the Kinburn Spit, in alliance with the Austrians won at Fokshany and Rymnik, and captured Izmail. In 1788 Khotin and Ochakov fell, in 1789 - Bendery. In 1790, the Turkish landing at Anapa was defeated and the uprising of the mountaineers was suppressed.
On the Black Sea, the Russian fleet won at Fedonisi (Snake Island), in the Kerch Strait, at Tendra Island.
In August 1790, the last Russian-Swedish war ended in a "draw", and Russia was able to concentrate all its efforts on the struggle against the Ottomans. But, in the same year, Russia's ally, the Austrian emperor Joseph II, died, and the Prince of Coburg was defeated at Zhurzha. The new emperor agreed to sign a separate peace. The Sistov peace treaty, which was concluded in August 1791, turned out to be very beneficial to Turkey: Austria abandoned all the conquests of this war. Sultan Selim III hoped that at least one high-profile victory of the Turkish troops over the Russians would change the balance of forces and the Ottoman Empire would be able to get out of the war with dignity, concluding an honorable peace.
This sultan pinned great hopes on the actions of his fleet, which had to be strengthened by the Algerian and Tunisian ships. The Ottoman fleet was commanded by Kapudan Pasha Giritli Hussein, and the Maghreb fleet was commanded by the famous pirate admiral Seydi-Ali (Said-Ali, Seit-Ali), who had experience in battles with European squadrons and bore the nicknames "Thunderstorm of the Seas" and "Lion of the Crescent". The general command was carried out by Hussein, Seydi-Ali was the senior vice admiral ("chief patron").
In May 1790, Seydi-Ali defeated the Greek marque squadron, which from 1788 intercepted Turkish ships in the Mediterranean Sea, hindering the supply of both the army and Constantinople.
Russian privateer and Greek corsair Lambro Kachioni
In Russia this man is known as Lambro Kachioni, in Greece he is called Lambros Katsonis. He was a native of the city of Livadia, located in the region of Boeotia (Central Greece).
At the age of 17, he and his brother and "other fellow believers" entered the service as a volunteer in the Mediterranean squadron of Admiral G. Spiridov. Then he served in the Jaeger Corps, in 1785 he received the title of nobility. With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, he fought at first on the Black Sea and on the night of October 10-11, 1787, near Hajibey (Odessa), his detachment, put on boats, captured a large Turkish ship, named after a nobleman who sympathized with this Greek - "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky".
In February 1788, with a letter of marque issued by Potemkin, he reached the Austrian port of Trieste, where he equipped the first corsair ship. Soon in his squadron there were already 10 marque ships, he himself said: "All over Turkey thunders that the Archipelago is filled with Russian ships, but in fact there are no more corsairs in the Archipelago than I myself and 10 of my ships."
To protect the trade routes, the Turks had to send 23 ships to the Archipelago, but luck smiled on the Algerian admiral Seit-Ali, who managed to sink 6 Kachioni ships, including the flagship 28-gun "Minerva Severnaya".
The Turks did not succeed in completely stopping the privateer actions of Kachione - albeit on a smaller scale, he still continued to bother them on the trade routes.
After the conclusion of the Jassy Peace Treaty in 1791, this adventurer ignored the order to disarm his ships, declared himself king of Sparta and engaged in outright piracy, even captured 2 French merchant ships. In June 1792, his squadron was defeated, he himself arrived in Russia in 1794. Despite some "dark spots" in his biography, Kachioni enjoyed the patronage of Catherine II, who was presented at the ball on September 20, 1795. The Greek corsair made such an impression on the empress that he was allowed to wear a fez with an embroidered silver image of a woman's hand and the inscription "At the hand of Catherine."
In 1796, the empress invited the former Greek corsair (now a Russian colonel) to her table five times, which caused bewilderment and envy among higher-ranking and titled persons. Catherine began to feel special affection for him after she was able to cure some kind of rash on her legs with baths of sea water, which Kachioni had recommended to her. The detractors of the Greek (in particular, the court physician Robertson) argued that it was these baths that contributed to the apoplectic stroke, which caused the death of the empress. However, these accusations turned out to be unsubstantiated, and no repressive measures followed with the accession of Paul I against Cachioni.
Let us now return to the Algerian Seidi-Ali, who promised the Sultan that he would bring Admiral of the Russians F. Ushakov to Istanbul in a cage or with a noose around his neck.
Battle of Cape Kaliakria
In the Ottoman fleet at that time, there were 19 ships of the line, 17 frigates and 43 small ships. Selim III's appeal for help to the Maghreb corsairs, most of whose ships, as we remember, were small and weakly armed, speaks volumes: both about the high "stakes" made on a new naval battle, and about the fear and uncertainty of the Sultan in its outcome.
The Turkish fleet went to sea in early May 1791. 20 battleships, 25 frigates, six shebeks, five bombarding ships, ten kirlangichi and 15 transport ships set off on the campaign. The purpose of his movement was Anapa: the Ottoman squadron was supposed to deliver supplies and reinforcements to this fortress, and provide support to the garrison from the sea.
On June 10, having received information that a large enemy fleet was found near the Dniester Estuary, a squadron of Rear Admiral F. Ushakov came out to meet it. At his disposal were 16 ships of the line, two frigates, three bombing ships, nine cruising ships, 13 brigantines and three fire ships.
According to Russian historical sources, the Turkish fleet was discovered on June 11 off the southern coast of Crimea (Cape Aya), and was pursued by Ushakov's squadron for 4 days. Turkish historians claim that during these days the squadrons were inactive due to the calm. The battle did not take place then, since, according to Ushakov, 6 battleships lagged behind his squadron due to various breakdowns. On June 16, the Russian squadron returned to Sevastopol, where the damaged ships were repaired for more than a month.
Ushakov was able to leave the sea again only on July 29. This time he had 16 ships of the line, two bombardment ships, two frigates, one fire-ship, one repetitive ship and 17 cruising ships. He flew the flagship flag on the 84-gun battleship Rozhdestven Hristovo, the most powerful in the squadron. This ship was built at the Kherson shipyard; Catherine II and the Austrian emperor Joseph II, in honor of whom it received its first name, were present at the solemn ceremony of launching it in 1787. It would be renamed on the initiative of Ushakov - March 15, 1790. Then he received the motto “God is with us, God is with us! Understand, you heathens, and obey, as God is with us! (words from Christmas Great Compline).
The Turkish fleet was spotted on 31 July at Cape Kaliakria.
Kapudan Pasha Hussein was on the battleship Bahr-i Zafer (the number of artillery pieces of this ship, according to various estimates, ranged from 72 to 82). The "Lion of the Crescent" Seydi-Ali held the flag on the 74-gun "Mukkaddim-i Nusret". "Patrona Tunus" (Tunisian Vice Admiral) was sailing on a 48-gun battleship, the Riyale Jezair (Algerian Rear Admiral) had a 60-gun ship at its disposal, Patrona Jezair (Algerian Vice Admiral) was piloting a private ship, the number of guns is unknown.
The Turkish squadron consisted of a larger number of ships, but it was heterogeneous, consisted of ships of different ranks, the corsair crews, to put it mildly, were not distinguished by discipline. In addition, due to heavy losses incurred in 1780-1790 and desertions, the crews of many Ottoman ships were understaffed (even the crew of Hussein's flagship).
At the time of the meeting, the wind direction was north. The Turkish fleet stood outside Cape Kaliakria in three columns, stretching from the southwest to the northeast. Ushakov's squadron, also in three columns, moved west.
Instead of lining up his ships in a line, Ushakov sent them between the coast (where the Turkish batteries were stationed) and the enemy ships - it was 14 hours and 45 minutes. This maneuver, in which the ships of the convoy closest to the coast, protected the ships of the other two from the fire of the coastal batteries, and the Russian squadron found itself in an upwind position, for the Turks was a complete surprise: they tried to line up their ships in a line, but they managed to do this only about 16.30. At the same time, the Russian ships turned into a line.
Ushakov on the Nativity of Christ attacked Seidi-Ali, whose ship he considered "kapudaniya" (flagship): on this ship the bowsprit and rudder were broken, the foremast and mainsail were shot down, Seidi-Ali was seriously wounded (they say that chips from the fore-top wounded him in the chin), but, covered by two frigates, the Mukkaddime-i Nusret pulled out of the battle. Its retreat by the crews of other Turkish ships was taken as a signal to flee, and at 20.00 the Ottoman fleet fled, at 20.30 the battle ended.
Turkish historians declare Seydi-Ali guilty of the defeat: allegedly, contrary to Hussein's orders, he withdrew with the Algerian and Tunisian ships to the south, because of which the Ottoman fleet was divided into two parts. And then, also arbitrarily, attacked the Russian vanguard and was surrounded. Some Turkish ships rushed to the aid of the defeated allies, and finally broke the formation. Then 8 Turkish ships followed the "Lion of the Crescent" fleeing to Constantinople, depriving Kapudan Pasha of Hussein of the opportunity to regroup his forces and continue the battle the next day.
As a result, the Ottoman fleet, which had lost 28 ships, was scattered along the Anatolian and Rumeli coastlines. Ten ships (5 of them are of the line) came to Constantinople, where the Mukkaddime-i Nusret, the flagship of Seydi-Ali, sank in front of the shocked residents of the city. The others looked pitiful and terrible at the same time.
Selim III was informed of the defeat with the words:
"Great! Your fleet is gone."
The Sultan replied:
“My fleet commander and the captains of my ships just insulted me. I did not expect this behavior from them. Woe to my respect, which I had for them!"
Some argue that the unfortunate Algerian admiral Seydi-Ali was put in the cage prepared for Ushakov. And Kapudan Pasha Hussein did not dare to appear in front of the angry sultan for a long time.
The Russian squadron did not lose a single ship in this battle. Human losses were also small: 17 people were killed and 27 were wounded - while 450 people died on the Seidi-Ali ship.
G. Potemkin, having received the news of the victory at Kaliakria, tore up the already practically ready peace treaty, hoping to sign a new, more profitable one.
The final article in the series will tell about the Barbary Wars of the United States and the final defeat of the pirate states of the Maghreb.
