Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  The Barbarossa Brothers

  The Barbary corsairs of North Africa moved into high gear with the arrival of the Barbarossa brothers. There were four brothers, Aroudj, Elias, Isaak, and Kheir ed-Din, who were all named Barbarossa because of the red beard of Aroudj, the eldest. Their father was one Jacob, an Albanian who had converted to Islam, their mother the daughter of a Greek priest, and the family resided on the Greek island of Lesbos. All four of the brothers became corsairs, though only two rose to fame, Aroudj and Kheir ed-din. Aroudj was captured by the Knights of Rhodes, and became a galley slave, but was ransomed. Starting with a small band, Aroudj then captured the island of Djerba around 1502 or 1503. Operating from there on behalf of the Ottoman Empire he captured two papal galleys and a Spanish ship carrying 300 soldiers and sixty passengers, and also took service with the sultan of Tunis. Carrying the fight to the infidel, Aroudj, sometimes with the aid of Ottoman forces, and sometimes leading a loose coalition of Moors, local tribesmen and dispossessed Muslims from Spain, attacked Spanish possessions on the coast of North Africa. For example, in 1512, he attacked the port of Bougie, whose ruler had been defeated by the Spanish two years before. However, at this siege, Aroudj lost his left arm to a cannon ball, and the siege failed. After a few more land-based operations, Aroudj was welcomed into Algiers by its ruler in 1516. Here, Aroudj showed his true colours by seizing the palace and town of Algiers with the support of Janissaries (the Ottoman army of Christian youths taken as a tax from the Balkans and converted to Islam; the Janissaries also recruited Christian renegades and Turks). Aroudj killed the ruler of Algiers in his sauna, while the ruler’s widow committed suicide, and her companions were tortured to death. Aroudj executed all he suspected of opposing him. Next Aroudj turned west and attacked local rulers, but his cruelty and heavy taxation turned the population against him, and he was finally cornered by the Spanish in 1518, and killed. His head was displayed at the gate of Oran, and his body was nailed to the wall of the city of Tlemcen, lighted by the flares of four torches.1

  If Aroudj was a part time pirate, but more of a land based adventurer, attempting to conquer Spanish possessions and the Arab and Berber tribes of North Africa, it was his youngest brother, Kheir ed-Din who dominated the maritime area. In honour of his brother, Kheir ed-Din dyed his hair and beard with henna, to produce a reddish hue, and was more capable than his brother, being a clever engineer and speaking six or more languages. He continued his brother’s land-based campaigns in Tunisia and also made Algiers his base, finally capturing the strong Spanish fort in the approaches to Algiers, called the Penon, in May 1529. Even before this, Kheir ed-Din had successfully attacked Sicily and the Italian coasts, and operated profitably off the French coast. Consequently the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, made him admiral in chief of his fleet in 1533, and Kheir ed-Din set about building a powerful Ottoman fleet of three decked galleys, reinforced with lead, and heavily armed. In 1534 Kheir ed-Din sailed with some forty of these galleys and sacked Fondi in Italy, perhaps seeking out the well known beauty, Giulia da Gonzaga, widow of the lord of Fondi. As it happened, Giulia was elsewhere, but 20,000 Janissaries landed near Fondi and carried off women and children. Next, Kheir ed-Din became involved in the struggle for Tunis, where he failed to retain control of the city against the local king, who was supported in bloody fights by Italians, Spaniards and the Knights of Malta. In revenge, Kheir ed-Din sailed for Majorca and allegedly carried away some 6,000 captives and considerable booty, selling his captives in the slave market of Algiers. In 1537, with a large fleet of 250 galleys, Kheir ed-Din devastated the area around Otranto in Italy, and then in the following year, 1538, he defeated a superior Christian fleet consisting of thirty-six papal galleys, sixty-one Genoese galleys, fifty Portuguese galleys, and ten galleys from the Knights of Malta. Kheir ed-Din’s masterful command produced a victory, and gave the Ottomans control over the eastern Mediterranean for some thirty years.

  There followed an unusual Ottoman alliance with France, since the French king, Francis I, used the Ottomans as allies in his struggle against the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. As part of this deal, Kheir ed-Din and his fleet of galleys spent the year 1543–1544 in the port of Toulon, planning future attacks against either Tunis, held by the Spaniards, or Italy, part of the domain of Charles V. Ultimately, Francis I was forced to bribe Kheir ed-Din to leave France, handing over 800,000 ecus and much else, ‘At Toulon there were thirty-two treasury officials filling sacks with 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 ecus continually for three whole days and for the best part of the nights.’2 So, in May 1544, Kheir ed-Din and his galleys plus a French fleet left the coast of France and sailed for Italy where towns and villages on the coast were plundered and burnt. At Reggio, in Calabria, men, women and children were chained and forced onto the ships. It is also alleged that Kheir ed-Din fell in love with the governor’s daughter and made her his second wife. At Porto Ercole, thirty men were given up as tribute if the town would be spared, but the town was burnt anyway. The island of Giglio lost 632 individuals, while the heads of the leading inhabitants were cut off. The island of Lipari offered a bribe, but this was refused and Kheir ed-Din’s artillery bombarded the main town until it surrendered. The population was brought in front of Kheir ed-Din who had the old men and women beaten, while the Janissaries found a group in the cathedral who ‘were taken out, robbed of their clothes and cut open whilst still alive … When we [the French] asked them why they treated these people with such cruelty they replied that among them such cruelty was deemed a virtue.’3

  After this, Kheir ed-Din did not have long to live, but before he died in Istanbul of fever or the plague in 1546, he had time to raid Minorca and Mahon, carrying off another 6,000 people. Following this last attack, he began building a large palace and mosque in Istanbul, but he did not have much time to enjoy this final flourish. At his death, the Barbary corsairs lost their most famous captain, though others such as Dragut and Ochiali were to follow.4

  The North African Corsair System: Raids and Attacks

  The Barbarossas and subsequent corsairs certainly sought ships, money, and booty, but the main aim was to capture prisoners on land or at sea, who were then turned into slaves. These slaves might be ransomed or redeemed for cash, or more rarely exchanged for Muslim captives, or were purchased and put to work in different ways in North Africa. It has been estimated that between 1530 and 1780 some one million, or one and a quarter million Europeans were captured and made slaves in North Africa, principally in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, with further captives in Istanbul and Sallee. The high point of this activity was between 1605 and 1634, when corsairs from Algiers took some 600 European ships. Together with land raids, the result was some 35,000 captive slaves at any one time in the three Barbary regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli during the period 1580–1680. And because of the high attrition rate of the slaves – around 25 per cent per year due to plague, mortality from poor conditions, ransom, and some becoming Muslim – there was a need for another 8,500 new slaves per year.5

  How did this whole system work? In the sixteenth century, before the galleon was introduced to the Barbary corsairs in the very early 1600s, their attacks were launched by the galley, usually operating in small fleets of two or three or more. Galleys were rowed by slaves, perhaps 150 to 300 per galley, which also contained around 140 soldiers. The aim was either to attack Christian ships at sea, or more easily, to raid the coastal areas of Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean islands. These raids usually took place at dawn, or involved some deceit, and the idea was to grab as many local inhabitants as possible. Villagers on these coasts had little recourse but to flee inland as fast as possible:

  Blessed was he who could flee his bed,

  That there was no other safety or shelter

  Than to run away leaving all his goods…

  The mother abandoned her own child,

  The husband his wife, the son his father,

  Never asking advice from anyone,

  But,
by back roads, indirect and little-known,

  Everyone tried to flee the danger.6

  The local authorities responded by building watch towers, and providing local militias, mobile cavalry patrols and naval forces to protect the coasts. There was also a special tune played by the local bugler when such raids came ashore, ‘Moors on the Coast’. But a long cove-studded coast was hard to defend, and in the sixteenth century and early seventeenth centuries before protective measures became more effective, flight was still the best remedy. If the local inhabitants could not escape and were caught and taken onboard the corsair galley, the unfortunate victims still had a chance at freedom. This was because the corsair would frequently return after a day or two to the same location from where the captives had been taken, hoist a white flag or some other sign of treaty, and bargain for ransom payments for the captives. Families of the captives usually had little enough cash for this situation, being simple villagers, but ruthless financiers would arrive, and offer to advance the necessary ransom cash in exchange for the villagers’ houses and farm land. There would also be a deadline for the payment of the ransom. As far as the corsairs were concerned, the ransom obtained in this manner would only be a small percentage of what their captives would fetch in the slave markets of North Africa, but it did provide instant cash for the corsairs, and also avoided the bother of keeping the captives secure and alive until the corsairs returned to port. If all went well, and the ransom was paid, the captives would return home to their now impoverished families, and often decided to move inland. In fact, one result of these corsair raids was a considerable depopulation of the coastal areas of Italy and Spain. As important, the corsair raids also had a considerable psychological impact.7

  The other alternative to raiding on land was, of course, for the corsairs to attack at sea. Here the issue for the corsairs was complicated by the fact that the regencies of North Africa often had treaties with various European nations, so some ships were off limits. This particularly referred to French, Dutch and English ships at various times, but the corsairs were adept at attacking Hapsburg ships from Spain, Italy, the islands of Sardinia, Sicily, and the Balearics, plus ships from states sometimes allied with the Hapsburgs, such as Venice and Genoa. As well, ships of the Knights of Malta were in perpetual conflict with the corsairs, and could be captured if possible. Even if the Barbary corsairs took a ship that was supposedly protected by treaty, the corsairs cleverly provoked neutral ships, or used deceit when boarding such ships by claiming to find contraband onboard from prohibited states. If all this failed, the corsairs could still board, and pretend to find someone from an enemy nation. An example of this occurred when the French cleric Jean-Baptiste Gramaye was accused by corsairs of being a Spaniard onboard a neutral ship, though he protested he did not know a word of Spanish. Gramaye reported that the corsairs then ‘whipped me with blows of a rope to the head, swearing that they would teach it to me well. Then, hearing me speak French and seeming to willingly believe that I had nothing in common with Spain, they insisted that I was a Jew.’ This last suggestion was because Jews were thought to be worth large ransoms. Then Gramaye watched terrified as one passenger was thrashed almost unconscious, at the end of which the passenger was compelled to swear in writing that Gramaye was really a bishop in disguise, and his servant was actually a Knight of Malta.8

  The corsair ships carried a large contingent of soldiers, perhaps 140 on a galley and 100–200 on a sailing ship. Because of this large number, plus the fact that the corsair galleys were usually faster than merchant ships, due to constant careening and the cut down character of their vessels, the corsairs had a high success rate once a ship was spotted. Then, the actual moment of capture was a terrifying one for those onboard the victim. The corsairs made as much noise as possible as they closed in on the unhappy ship, to psychologically disarm the crew. Shouting, cursing, banging the side of their ship, and clapping hands, the soldiers on the corsair ships wanted to have as easy a time in the actual capture as possible. Swarming aboard, rather than reducing their victim by cannon, the corsairs waved curved scimitars, wore turbans and flowing clothes, and altogether presented a terrifying picture. Also, because it was a tradition that if a ship offered any resistance, the first corsair aboard had the choice of one of the captured passengers as his slave, there was an understandable rush to get aboard the targeted ship. Then the rest of the corsairs wandered about the ship ‘searching here and there on the bridge, in the waist, and at the bottom of the hold: with blows of axes they broke open the trunks…gorging themselves with booty, smashing into the stores, breaking the seals, and making an inventory all at the same time.’9 The first rush onboard could also be dangerous for the crew and passengers due to the fury of the corsairs, following which came the search of the captured crew and passengers for their wealth and status. One account comes from Richard Hasleton, captured in 1582, as his ship sank after gunfire from two Turkish galleys. He was shot, but swam to one of the galleys, where he was stripped of his clothes, and the captain questioned him about his status, ‘Which because I would not confess, he gave me fifteen strokes with a cudgel and then put me in the galley’s hold, where I was six days, taking very little sustenance, lying in extreme pains by reason of my hurts…’10

  The wealthy among the passengers would make every effort to conceal their status from the corsairs, since the wealthy would expect to have to pay a large ransom for their freedom. Hence, just before capture, there would be the hurried efforts of wealthy merchants to change their clothes to those of a peasant, and to conceal any coins and jewels, perhaps going as far as swallowing a gold coin or two. The ultimate option was to throw some or all of their wealth overboard. Thus one account showed how passengers, ‘Threw the better part of their silver money, flashy dress suits, gilded swords, embroidered belts, boots, letters, and other indicators of wealth and quality helter-skelter into the sea…out of a desire to disguise themselves, to avoid the demands of a huge ransom.’11 Of course the corsairs were well aware of such tricks, and spent some time examining the hands and teeth of their captives, which tended to give the game away. And, as in the story of Gramaye, the corsairs would sometimes choose one unfortunate captive to beat in order to get him to reveal which of the prisoners were worth large ransoms, and where everyone had hidden their wealth. But opinion seems to differ on the corsair treatment of their captives, one author praising the good behavior of the corsairs, especially in their treatment of female passengers, while another stressed the abuse of the corsairs. Certainly, the captives would be chained, hustled below deck, and kept in very confined quarters because the galley or ship would already have too many soldiers and rowers onboard. And sometimes the captive would be put to the oars immediately, as one wrote how within a very short time ‘they put me in a Galley, stript off my Robes, shaved my head, and set me to an Oar, which was work enough for six of us to tug at.’12

  Slave Captivity in North Africa

  After this, the captives faced an unpleasant journey. This could be long, depending on the corsair voyage, and might result in death due to disease or lack of food and water, or the galley could head straight back to Algiers or another port. If the voyage had been a success, the corsair would fire guns as the galley or ship approached port, and if a galley, the rowers would be forced to row ‘proudly’, with a long stroke and exaggerated fall of the oar. Then, psychologically, must have come the hardest part for the captives, when they were paraded through town on their way to captivity before the slave auction, with the cheers and jeers of the town’s inhabitants ringing in their ears. Joseph Pitts, captured in 1678, recounts his arrival in Algiers, where the first night was spent in the house of the ship’s captain. Next day, the Dey (ruler) of Algiers took his one eighth pick of the slaves (and his one eighth of the cargo if it survived), after which Pitts was driven to the slave marketplace in Algiers, called the badestan, where he was obliged to stand from 8a.m. until 2p.m. while prospective buyers sampled the wares. Then came the auction, and
Pitts recalled how the auctioneer tried to improve the value of the slave, ‘Behold what a strong man this is! What limbs he has! He is fit for any work. And see what a pretty boy this is! No doubt his parents are very rich and able to redeem him with a great ransom.’ Next, the slaves, whether male or female, were paraded a second time in front of the Dey, the governor of Algiers, who could repurchase any at the price that they were sold for in the auction.13 It appears that the real auction then took place at the Dey’s palace, since after the Dey had made his purchases, the traders made their final bids for the slaves, which were often twice what the original sale price had been. For these auctions, both at the badestan and in the Dey’s palace, the slaves would be prodded, made to run and jump to show fitness, while the usual inspection of hands and teeth took place – the hands to establish rank, but the teeth to see if the slave could gnaw the hard biscuit and beef jerky of the galleys. Other more careful inspections would look at the hair cut, again to establish rank, and the earlobes to see if they had been pierced, which meant the slave was likely to be of higher status. More difficult was evaluation of age – obviously useful for judging the length of a slave’s working life and ability to do hard work.