THE STUART NAVY GOES FORTH AGAINST THE “PYRATS”
After the death of Queen Elizabeth and the respite from the Anglo-Spanish
naval fighting there was little employment for those hundreds of our
countrymen who had taken to the sea during the time of Drake. Fighting
the Spaniards or lying in wait for treasure ships bound from the West
Indies to Cadiz was just the life that appealed to them. But now that
these hostilities had passed, they felt that their means of livelihood
were gone. After the exciting sea life with Drake and others, after
the prolonged Armada-fighting, it would be too tame for them to settle
down to life ashore. Fishing was not very profitable, and there was not
sufficient demand for all the men to ship on board merchant ships.
So numbers of these English seamen unfortunately took to piracy. Some of
them, it would be more truthful to say, _resumed_ piracy and found their
occupation haunting the English Channel, the Scillies being a notorious
nest for pirates. Notwithstanding the number of these robbers of the sea
who were always on the look out, yet, says our friend Smith of Virginia,
“it is incredible how many great and rich prizes the little barques of
the West Country daily brought home, in regard of their small charge.”
But the strenuous measures which were being now taken in the narrow
seas by the North European governments made piracy in this district
less remunerative than hitherto. In the Mediterranean these unemployed
seamen knew that piracy was a much better paid industry. They knew that
the Moors would be glad to avail themselves of the services of such
experienced seamen, so they betook themselves to Barbary. At first, be it
remembered, these Englishmen had established themselves as North African
pirates “on their own” without any connection with the Moors. Smith
mentions that Ward, “a poore English sailor,” and Dansker, a Dutchman,
here began some time before the Moors scarcely knew how to sail a ship.
An Englishman named Easton made such a profit that he became, says Smith,
a “Marquesse in Savoy,” and Ward “lived like a Bashaw in Barbary.” From
these men the Moors learnt how to become good sea-fighters. Besides
Englishmen there came also French and Dutch adventurers to join them,
attracted by this mode of life, but very few Spaniards or Italians ever
joined their throng. After a time, however, disagreements arose and the
inevitable dissensions followed.
They then became so split up and disunited that the Moors and Turks began
to obtain the upper hand over them and to compel them to be their slaves.
Furthermore, they made these expert European sailors teach themselves
how to become distinguished in the nautical arts. This “many an accursed
runnagado, or Christian turned Turke, did, till they have made those
Sally men, or Moores of Barbary, so powerfull as they be, to the terror
of all the Straights.” Other English pirates hovered about off the Irish
coasts, and three men, named respectively Gennings, Harris and Thompson,
in addition to some others, were captured and hanged at Wapping. A number
of others were captured and pardoned by James I.
A contemporary account of rowing in a Barbarian galley in the time of
Elizabeth has been preserved to us, written by one Thomas Sanders. “I and
sixe more of my fellowes,” he writes, “together with fourescore Italians
and Spaniards were sent foorth in a Galeot to take a Greekish Carmosell,
which came into Africa to steale Negroes, and went out of Tripolis unto
that place, which was two hundred and fourtie leagues thence, but wee
were chained three and three to an oare, and wee rowed naked above the
girdle, and the Boteswaine of the Galley walked abaft the maste, and his
Mate afore the maste ... and when their develish choller rose, they would
strike the Christians for no cause. And they allowed us but halfe a pound
of bread a man in a day without any other kinde of sustenance, water
excepted ... we were then also cruelly manackled in such sort, that we
could not put our hands the length of one foote asunder the one from the
other, and every night they searched our chaines three times, to see if
they were fast riveted.”
And the same man related the unhappy experience of a Venetian and
seventeen captives who, after enduring slavery for some time at the hands
of the Sultan of Tripoli, succeeded in getting a boat and got right away
to sea. Away they sped to the northward, and at length they sighted
Malta. Their hopes ran high: their confidence was now undoubted. On they
came, nearer and nearer to the land, and now they were within only a mile
of the shore. It was beautifully fine weather, and one of them remarked,
“_In dispetto de Dio adesso venio a pittiar terra_”—“In the despite of
God I shall now fetch the shoare.” But the man had spoken with an excess
of confidence. For presently a violent storm sprang up, so that they
were forced to up-helm and to run right before the gale, which was now
blowing right on to the Tripolitan coast. Arrived off there they were
heart-broken to find that they were compelled to row up and down the
very coastline which they had imagined they had escaped from. For three
weeks they held out as best they could, but the weather being absolutely
against them, and their slender victuals being at length exhausted, they
were compelled to come ashore, hoping to be able to steal some sheep. The
Barbarian Moores, however, were on the watch and knew that these unlucky
men would be bound to land for supplies. Therefore a band of sixty
horsemen were dispatched who secreted themselves behind a sandhill near
the sea. There they waited till the Christians had got well inland a good
half mile. Then, by a smart movement, the horsemen cut off all retreat
to the sea, whilst others pursued the starving voyagers and soon came
back with them. They were brought back to the place whence they had so
recently escaped. The Sultan ordered that the fugitives should, some of
them, have their ears cut off, whilst others were most cruelly thrashed.
[Illustration: BLIGHTED HOPES
The seamen had escaped from Tripoli and were within sight of Malta when a
violent storm drove them back to the Moorish coast. Compelled by hunger
to land, they were cut off by a party of horsemen, and again thrown into
captivity to be most barbarously treated.]
The enterprising voyages of the English ships to the Levant in the
sixteenth century had been grievously interfered with by the Algerine
galleys roving about the Mediterranean, especially in proximity to the
Straits of Gibraltar. They would set out from England with goods to
deliver and then return with Mediterranean fruits and other commodities.
But so often were these valuable ships and cargoes captured by the
hateful infidels that the English merchants who had dispatched the
goods became seriously at a loss and were compelled to invoke the aid
of Elizabeth, who endeavoured, by means of diplomacy, to obtain the
release of these ships and to prevent such awkward incidents recurring.
To give the names of a few such ships, and to indicate the loss in regard
to ships’ freights and of men held captive in slavery we have only to
mention the following: The _Salomon_ of Plymouth had been captured with
a load of salt and a crew of thirty-six men. The _Elizabeth_ of Guernsey
was seized with ten Englishmen and a number of Bretons, her value being
2000 florins. The _Maria Martin_, under the command of Thomas More, with
a crew of thirty-five, had been taken while returning from Patrasso in
Morea. Her value was 1400 florins. The _Elizabeth Stokes_ of London,
under the command of David Fillie of London, whilst bound for Patrasso,
had been also captured, but her value was 20,000 or 30,000 florins. The
_Nicolas_ of London, under the command of Thomas Foster, had also been
seized, at a loss of about 5000 florins. So also in like manner could be
mentioned the _Judith_ of London, the _Jesus_ of London, the _Swallow_ of
London.
But England, of course, was not the only country which suffered by these
piratical acts. In 1617 France was moved to take serious action, and
sent a fleet of fifty ships against these Barbarian corsairs. Off St.
Tropez they captured one of these roving craft, and later on met another
which was captured by a French renegado of Rochelle. The latter defended
himself fiercely for some time, but at length, seeing that the day was
going against him, he sunk his ship and was drowned, together with the
whole of his crew, rather than be captured by the Christians. And from
now onwards, right up to the nineteenth century, there were at different
dates successive expeditions sent against these rovers by the chief
European powers.
Many of these expeditions were of little value, some were practically
useless, while others did only ephemeral good. Thus, you will remember,
the only active service which the navy of our James I. ever saw was
in 1620, when it was sent against the pirates of Algiers. But they
had become so successful and so daring that they were not easily to
be tackled. Not content now with roving over the Mediterranean, not
satisfied with those occasional voyages out through the Gibraltar Straits
into the Atlantic, they now, if you please, had the temerity to cross
the Bay of Biscay and to cruise about the approaches of the English
Channel. These Algerine pirates actually sailed as far north as the south
of Ireland, where they acted just as they had for generations along
the Mediterranean: that is to say, they landed on the Munster shore,
committed frightful atrocities and carried away men, women and children
into the harsh slavery which was so brutally enforced in their Barbarian
territory. What good did the Jacobean expedition which we sent out, you
may naturally ask? The answer may be given in the fewest words. Although
the fleet contained six of our royal ships and a dozen merchantmen, yet
it returned home with no practical benefit, the whole affair having been
a hopeless muddle.
In 1655, Blake, the great admiral of Cromwell’s time, was sent to tackle
these pirate pests. It was a big job, but there was no one at that time
better suited for an occasion that required determination. Tunis was a
very plague-spot by its piratical colony and its captives made slaves.
It had to be humbled to the dust, and Blake, with all the austerity
and thoroughness of a Puritan officer, was resolved to do his duty to
Christendom. But Tunis was invulnerable, so it was a most difficult
undertaking. He spent the early spring of this year cruising about the
neighbourhood, biding his time and being put to great inconvenience
by foul winds and tempestuous weather. He found that these Tunis
pirates were obstinate and wilful: they were unprepared to listen to
any reason. Intractable and insolent, it was impossible to treat with
them: force was the only word to which they could be made to hearken.
“These barbarous provocations,” wrote Blake in giving an account of his
activities here, “did so far work upon our spirits that we judged it
necessary, for the honour of the fleet, our nation and religion, seeing
they would not deal with us as friends, to make them feel us as enemies”;
and it was thereupon resolved, at a council of war, to endeavour the
firing their ships in Porto Farina.
Tunis, itself, being invulnerable, Blake entered the neighbouring
harbour, this Porto Farina, very early in the morning. The singular thing
was that he was favoured with amazingly good luck—a fair wind in and a
fair wind out. But let me tell the story in the Admiral’s own words:
“Accordingly, the next morning very early, we entered with the fleet into
the harbour, and anchored before their castles, the Lord being pleased
to favour us with a gentle gale off the sea, which cast all the smoke
upon them, and made our work the more easy. After some hours’ dispute we
set on fire all their ships, which were in number nine; and, the same
favourable gale still continuing, we retreated out again into the road.
We had twenty-five men slain, and about forty besides hurt, with very
little other loss. It was also remarkable by us that, shortly after our
getting forth, the wind and weather changed, and continued very stormy
for many days, so that we could not have effected the business, had not
the Lord afforded that nick of time in which it was done.”
But these attacks by the powers were regarded by the pirates as mere
pin-pricks. For it was nothing to them that even all their galleys
should be burnt. Such craft were easily built again, and there was an
overwhelming amount of slave-labour and plenty of captive seamen to rig
these ships as soon as finished. So the evil continued and the epidemic
spread as before. In 1658, these Barbarian corsairs attacked a ship
called the _Diamond_, homeward bound from Lisbon to Venice. She was laden
with a valuable cargo, and her captain saw that he would not be able to
defend his ship against three galleys, so, rather than let her fall into
piratical hands, he determined to destroy her. He placed an adequate
quantity of powder, and then laying a match to the same, he jumped into
his long-boat, from which presently he had the pleasure of seeing his
enemies blown into space by the terrific explosion just as these infidels
were in the act of boarding the _Diamond_.
Ten years later Sir Thomas Allen was sent during the summer with a
squadron once more to repress Algerine piracy. He arrived before Algiers,
and was so successful that he compelled the release of all the English
captives which had been accumulating there. Indeed, it is amazing to
count up so many of these expeditions from England alone. Thus, in
the early spring of 1671, we find Sir Edward Spragge sent out to the
Mediterranean for the same purpose. The following account is condensed
from his own dispatch and is of no ordinary interest. On the 20th of
April, Spragge was cruising in his flagship the _Revenge_, about fifteen
or twenty miles off Algiers, when he met his other ships, the _Mary_,
_Hampshire_, _Portsmouth_ and the _Advice_, which were all frigates.
These informed him that several Algerine war-craft were at Bougie. He
called a council of war, at which it was agreed that Spragge should make
the best of his way there with the _Mary_, the _Portsmouth_ pink and his
fireships, and he should endeavour to destroy these corsairs in their
own lair. The _Hampshire_ and the _Portsmouth_ were left to cruise off
Algiers till further orders should reach them.
The wind was now easterly, and one of his ships, named the _Dragon_, had
been gone five days, as she was busy chasing a couple of Algerine corsair
craft: but as the wind for some days had been from the south-west,
Spragge was in hopes that the chase would have carried the ships to the
eastward and thus force the Algerines into Bougie. And so, on the 23rd
of April, the _Dragon_ returned to Spragge, having been engaged for two
days in fighting the two Algerine craft. Unfortunately her commander,
Captain Herbert (whom the reader will remember by his later title when
he became the Earl of Torrington), had been shot in the face by a musket
shot, and nine of his men had also been wounded with small shot. The wind
continued easterly until 28th April, but at eight o’clock that night it
flew round to south-west and the weather became very gusty and rainy.
This caused Spragge’s _Little Eagle_ fireship to become disabled, and
she was dismasted by the wind. But, on the last day of April, Spragge
got her fitted with masts again and re-rigged, for luckily he had with
him a corn ship captured from the corsairs, and her spars, together with
some topmasts and other spars, caused the fireship to be ready again
for service. Unfortunately the same bad weather caused the _Warwick_
to spring her mast—an accident that frequently befell the ships of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—so she “bore away to the Christian
shore: my Brigantine at the same time bore away, and as yet I have no
news of her.”
The same day this admiral arrived in Bougie Bay, but here again he had
bad luck. Just as he was within half a shot of the enemy’s castles and
forts the wind dropped and it fell a flat calm. Then the breeze sprang
up, but it blew off shore. So the time passed. On the 2nd of May the
winds were still very fluky, and after twice in vain attempting to do
anything with these varied puffs, Spragge resolved to attack by night
with his ships’ boats and his smallest fireship. The water close to the
forts was very shallow, and the English fireship could be rowed almost
as well as a ship’s long-boat. So about midnight he dispatched all the
boats he could, as well as the _Eagle_ fireship, under the command of “my
eldest Lieutenant, Master Nugent.” It was a dark night, and the high land
was very useful for its obscuring effects.
Nugent, leaving one of the long-boats with the fireship, in addition to
the fireship’s own boat, now rowed off to reconnoitre the enemy, having
first given the fireship’s captain orders to continue approaching until
he should find himself in shoal water: he was then immediately to anchor.
Nugent had then rowed off and had scarcely left the fireship one minute
when, after proceeding but a little way over the leaden waters, he found
himself quite close to where the English squadron was anchored. He had
thus lost his bearings in the dark and at once steered off again to find
the fireship, when, to his great amazement, he suddenly saw the latter
burst out into a sheet of flame. That, of course, was another piece
of ill-luck, for it entirely upset all the carefully laid plans and
instantly alarmed the enemy. It would have been useless to have attempted
a boat attack that night, so the effort was postponed. What had happened
was this: the little fireship had been all ready when, by an accident,
the gunner had fired off his pistol. This had caused the ignition, and
so the ship had been lost without any good being done. It was a thousand
pities as, owing to her shallow draught, she had been relied upon for
getting right close in.
With this warning the enemy the next day unrigged their ships, which lay
in their harbour, then gathered together all the yards, the topmasts and
spars generally off these ships, together with their cables. All this
they made into a boom, which was buoyed up by means of casks. Spragge
and his fleet watched this being done, for there was no wind, or, as he
expressed it, we had “no opportunity of wind to do anything upon them.”
On the 8th of May they noticed that the corsairs ashore were reinforced
by the arrival of horse-as well as foot-soldiers, which the Englishmen
suspected rightly had come from Algiers. The Bougie corsairs greeted this
arrival with wild cheering and by firing of the guns in their ships and
castles, as well as by the display of colours.
About noon, just as Spragge was anxious to reopen operations, he was
harassed by a flat calm. Luckily, however, at 2 p.m. a nice breeze
sprang up, and the _Revenge_, _Dragon_, _Advice_ and _Mary_ advanced and
let go in 3½ fathoms nearer in, mooring stem and stern so that their
broadsides might face Bougie’s fortifications. The position was roughly
thus. Looking towards Bougie, Spragge’s six ships were moored roughly in
a half-circle in the following order from left to right. First came the
_Portsmouth_, then the _Garland_, the _Dragon_, the _Mary_, the _Advice_
and finally the _Revenge_ flagship. These were all, so to speak, in the
foreground of the picture. In the background were the enemy’s ships on
the left, whilst on the right were the castles and fortifications. In
the middle distance on the left was the boom defence already noted. The
_Revenge_ was in 4 fathoms, being close up to the castles and walls, and
the fight began. For two hours these ships bombarded Bougie’s ships and
fortresses.
Spragge then decided to make a boat attack, his ships still remaining at
anchor. He therefore sent away his pinnace, under the command of a man
named Harman, “a Reformado seaman of mine.” A “reformado,” by the way,
was a volunteer serving with the fleet without a commission yet with the
rank of an officer. Harman was sent because Spragge’s second lieutenant
had been hurt by a splinter in the leg. Lieutenant Pin was sent in
command of the _Mary’s_ boat, and Lieutenant Pierce had charge of the
_Dragon’s_ boat. The project was to cut the boom, and this was bravely
done by these three boats, though not without some casualties. Eight of
the _Mary’s_ boat’s crew and her lieutenant were wounded with small shot.
In the Admiral’s pinnace seven were killed outright, and all the rest
were wounded excepting Harman. Of the _Dragon’s_ boat’s crew ten were
wounded as well as her lieutenant, and one was killed.
But the boom had been cut, and that was the essential point. That being
done, the Admiral then signalled to his one remaining fireship, the
little _Victory_, to do her work. She obeyed and got in so well through
the boom that she brought up athwart the enemy’s “bolt-sprits, their
ships being aground and fast to the castles.” The _Victory_ burnt very
well indeed, and destroyed all the enemy’s shipping, ten in all. Of these
ten, seven were the best ships of the Algerine fleet, and of the three
others one was a Genoese prize and the other had been a ship the pirates
had captured from an English crew. The commander, the master’s mate,
the gunner and one seaman of the fireship had been wounded badly in the
fight, but the victory was complete and undoubted. On the 10th of May a
Dutchman who had been captive with the corsairs for three years escaped
by swimming off to the _Revenge_, and Spragge had him taken on board.
The Dutchman informed the English Admiral that the enemy admitted that
at least 360 Turkish soldiers had lost their lives in this engagement by
fire and gunshot, as they could not get ashore from the ships. There were
in all about 1900 men in addition to those 300 who came that morning
from Algiers. The Dutchman, for himself, thought the losses far exceeded
the number assessed by the enemy.
He stated that the castles and the town itself had been badly damaged,
and as all their medicine-chests were on the ships and so burnt, it was
impossible for the enemy to dress the wounds of their injured. “Old
Treky, their Admiral, is likewise wounded,” wrote Spragge. Among the
enemy’s killed was Dansker, a renegado, and our losses consisted only of
17 killed and 41 wounded.