The Story of the Barbary CorsairsLane-Poole, Stanley
History
The Story of the Barbary Corsairs
Lane-Poole, Stanley
Africa, North -- History -- 1517-1882; Pirates
These vessels are perpetually building or repairing at Algiers; the
builders are all Christians, who have a monthly pay from the Treasury
of six, eight, or ten quarter-dollars, with a daily allowance of three
loaves of the same bread with the Turkish soldiery, who have four.
Some of the upper rank of these masters have six and even eight of
these loaves; nor has any of their workmen, as carpenters, caulkers,
coopers, oar-makers, smiths, &c., fewer than three. The _Beylik_, or
common magazine, never wants slaves of all useful callings, "nor is it
probable that they should ever have a scarcity of such while they are
continually bringing in incredible numbers of Christians of all
nations." The captains, too, have their private artificer slaves, whom
they buy for high prices and take with them on the cruise, and hire
them out to help the Beylik workmen when ashore.
The number of vessels possessed at any one time by the Algerines
appears to have never been large. Barbarossa and Dragut were content
with small squadrons. Ochiali had but fifteen Algerine galleys at
Lepanto. Haedo says that at the close of the sixteenth century (1581)
the Algerines possessed 36 galleots or galleys, made up of 3 of 24
banks, 1 of 23, 11 of 22, 8 of 20, 1 of 19, 10 of 18, and 2 of 15, and
these were, all but 14, commanded by renegades. They had besides a
certain number of brigantines of 14 banks, chiefly belonging to Moors
at Shershēl. This agrees substantially with Father Dan's account
(1634), who says that there were in 1588 thirty-five galleys or
brigantines (he means galleots) of which all but eleven were commanded
by renegades. Haedo gives the list[61] of the 35 captains, from which
the following names are selected: Ja'far the Pasha (Hungarian), Memi
(Albanian), Murād (French), Deli Memi (Greek), Murād Reïs
(Albanian), Feru Reïs (Genoese), Murād Maltrapillo and Yūsuf
(Spaniards), Memi Reïs and Memi Gancho (Venetians), Murād the Less
(Greek), Memi the Corsican, Memi the Calabrian, Montez the Sicilian,
and so forth, most of whom commanded galleys of 22 to 24 banks.[62]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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