Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History, Naval
Two years later a squadron under Captain William Rainsborow was actually
dispatched against Salee. This port was blockaded by four ships, which
were reinforced by four more, and after destroying every Turkish ship
which attempted to break the blockade, the squadron closed in to the
city, and so battered its fortifications that the pirates were glad to
make terms by giving up 400 English slaves. The success of Captain
Rainsborow shows what might have been done had the same process been
applied to other pirate cities on the African coast, but, strange to
say, our forefathers were content merely to "scotch the snake", without
making an end of it once and for all.
By 1640 the Turks were as bold and aggressive as ever. Three Turkish
men-of-war attacked the _Elizabeth_ off the Lizard and burned her, and
shortly afterwards landed at Penzance and carried off sixty men, women,
and children. The Deputy-Lieutenant of Cornwall reported that there were
about sixty Turkish pirates off the coast at this time. In 1645 it is
stated that they landed again at Fowey, and made slaves of 240 persons,
including some ladies.
Occasionally some of our merchant-ships were able to put up a successful
defence against the "Turks".
There were several instances of this in the Mediterranean, and here is a
shipmaster's report of how he did the like in the Channel in 1638: "W.
Nurry, of this town and county of Poole, Mariner and Master under God of
the good ship called the _Concord_ of Poole, burthen, 80 tons, with 6
guns, 12 men, and 2 boys, being about 6 or 7 leagues off Ushant, coming
from Rochelle laden with salt, was set upon by a man-of-war of Algiers
having 15 pieces of ordnance and full of men with the colour of
Holland displayed ... and then put out her Turkey colours and bade him
'amain'[28] for the King of Algiers, whereupon this examinant refusing
to strike their sails at his command, the Turk boarded his ship in his
quarter with great store of men, whereby they continued to fight board
by board together by the space of 3 hours, and the Turk being weary of
the battery took occasion to cut away this examinant's sprit-sail-yard
to clear himself away, and then stood to the northward ... that he
killed a great many of the Turks and beat them out of his top into the
sea with his muskets, and then surprised and brought into this harbour
of Poole, one Turk and three Christians, viz.: a Dutchman, a Frenchman
and a Biscayner." These three men made statements to the effect that the
Turkish ship was of 240 tons displacement, carried 15 guns and 124 men,
of whom 19 were Christians, 6 of them English, and 3 of them renegades,
and that thirty men-of-war from Algiers were "on the war-path" against
Spain, France, and England. The "Dutchman" was one Oliver Megy of
Lübeck, who admitted that he had been acting as pilot. Dutchman was
apparently then used indiscriminately for Dutch or German, as I believe
is still to a great extent the case at sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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