Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairsCurrey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
History
Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairs
Currey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
Africa, North -- History; Pirates
This defeat at the hands of the Venetians was not, however, the only
humiliation which he was destined to experience in this disastrous
year; for once again Doria, that scourge of the Moslem, was loose
upon the seas, and was making his presence felt in the immediate
neighbourhood of Corfu, where the Turks had been defeated. On July
17th Andrea had left the port of Messina with twenty-five galleys,
had captured ten richly laden Turkish ships, gutted and burned
them. Kheyr-ed-Din was at sea at the time, but the great rivals
were not destined to meet on this occasion. Instead of Barbarossa,
Andrea fell in with Ali-Chabelli, the lieutenant of Sandjak Bey of
Gallipoli. On July 22nd the Genoese admiral and the Turkish commander
from the Dardanelles met to the southward of Corfu, off the small
island of Paxo, and a smart action ensued. It ended in the defeat of
Ali-Chabelli, whose galleys were captured and towed by Doria into Paxo.
That veteran fighter was himself in the thickest of the fray, and,
conspicuous in his crimson doublet, had been an object of attention
to the marksmen of Chabelli during the entire action. In spite of the
receipt of a severe wound in the knee, the admiral refused to go below
until victory was assured. He was surrounded at this time by a devoted
band of nobles sworn to defend the person of their admiral or to die
in his defence. His portrait has been sketched for us at this time by
the Dominican Friar, Padre Alberto Gugliel-motto, author of “La guerra
dei Pirati e la marina Pontifica dal 1500 al 1560.” The description
runs thus: “Andrea Doria was of lofty stature, his face oval in shape,
forehead broad and commanding, his neck was powerful, his hair short,
his beard long and fan-shaped, his lips were thin, his eyes bright and
piercing.”
Once again had he defeated an officer of the Grand Turk; and it may be
remarked that Ibrahim was probably quite right in the estimation, or
rather in the lack of estimation, in which he held the sea-officers of
his master, as they seem to have been deficient in every quality save
that of personal valour, and in their encounters with Doria and the
knights were almost invariably worsted. For the sake of Islam, for the
prestige of the Moslem arms at sea, it was time that Barbarossa should
take matters in hand once more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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