Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

maritime signals and generally was the only literate person on board. The
seamen were of two kinds, Bahri and Sotta affected to the front and rear of the
ship respectively. Service was done by quarters starting at midnight under the
command of the Bach Rais seconded by Rais el Assa. 93
3. 2. Size of the Fleet
In the absence of naval records pertaining to the period, the size of the
fleet is marked out by major events. Accordingly, when Salih Pasha (1552-56)
destroyed the Portuguese flotilla anchored at Cadiz, Spain, in 1553 he was at
the command of 40 vessels of different sizes. 94 Two year later, when he set out
to expel the Spaniards from Bejaia, he was commanding 30 mighty galleys.” 95
In 1555, the fleet counted 32 galleys, which lets presume that naval
construction was done at a pace of two galleys per year. This is enormous
considering that the large fighting galleys were propelled by an average of 150
to over 250 oarsmen and could carry a crew of up to 500 men and over. 96 The
Battle of Lepanto, 1571 is one of the largest naval battles in which Algiers
participated with 15 large galleys commanded by El-Euldj Ali. As observed by
a modern war strategist, the Algerian galleots “tended to be better armed and
larger than their Christian opposites.” 97 The Algerian fleet also participated in
93 Devoulx, “Marine d’Alger,” 388-89.
94 Ibid. p. 389.
95 Primaudaie, “Commerce et navigation,” pp. 169-70; Hess, Forgotten Frontier, p. 11.
96 Walter Scheidel, “Galley Slaves,” in Paul Finkelman and Joseph Calder Miller, eds. Macmillan
Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Vol. 1 (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1998), p. 355.
97 John F. Guilmartin, Jr., “The Tactics of the Battle of Lepanto Clarified: The Impact of Social,
Economic, and Political Factors on Sixteenth Century Galley Warfare,” in Craig L. Symonds, New
Aspects of Naval History: Selected Papers Presented at the Fourth Naval History Symposium, United
50