The Sultan's Admiral by Ernle Bradford

Author:Ernle Bradford [Bradford, Ernle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mediterranean, Barbarossa, Barbary Pirates
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2013-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Only one galley, the crack of the whip sounding over the rowers’ backs, turned away in the confusion and managed to escape. Hotly pursued by some of the galleots, she made her way to Ibiza. She found safety at Salina, that cape where the flat white salt pans blaze under the sun. The other seven galleys of Spain surrendered one after another. The whole action was a perfect example of the fact that it is not the size and weight of armament that necessarily wins battles, but efficient armament efficiently handled. Morale was then—as it is still—the prime requisite for success.

Almost unbelievably, Aydin Rais, Salah Rais, and their Turks, had turned what should have been a certain defeat into an incredible victory. They released their fellow countrymen and coreligionists from their chains, and then turned back into the long sandy bay of Formentera to collect their Morisco passengers. The latter, who had been nervously watching the whole action, prepared to flee towards the heights of the island if the Spaniards had won, came down and were re-embarked. Aydin and his lieutenants now spent several days in the anchorage, making their arrangements for the officering of the captured ships, for the distribution of passengers, and for the immediate repair of planks, oars, and rigging that had been damaged in the action.

It was an astounding action. British histories, for instance, which make much of the successes of Francis Drake against the Spaniards (such as his capture of the great San Felipe off the Azores in 1587) never mention the day when a captain of Barbarbarossa’s fleet took on eight large war galleys of Spain in an engagement which, by all the rules of war, should have gone the other way, and defeated them.

But then whoever—-in any country in the world—has history truly presented to him? The English try to be objective, but are far from successful. The Spaniards have considerable honesty, but a strong religious bias. The Italians use their charm like a smoke screen. The French (so soon after this particular episode to become allied with the Turks) merely lie. The Americans and the Russians often pretend that any history prior to their own is somewhat irrelevant. But the history of the Mediterranean is important, because the whole of Western culture stems from this sea and the land surrounding it. To see the culture and the technical achievements of the Mediterranean basin as totally European is as stupid as maintaining that there is positive in electricity but no negative. The whole story of the cultures that have arisen in this part of the world stems from the fact that it is here that the interrelation between East and West is most acutely felt.

Aydin Rais and Salah Rais returned to Algiers, and to a most deserved triumph. Behind them they had in tow, or under their command, seven of Spain’s great galleys and, among them, the flagship of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet. General Portundo, the commander of the squadron, had been killed, but his son was among the prisoners—together with six other noble captains.

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