Bombardment of Algiers (1682)
Bombardment of Algiers, 1682 | |||||||
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Part of French-Algerian War 1681–1688 | |||||||
Bombardment of Algiers by the fleet of Admiral Duquesne in 1682 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
France |
Regency of Algiers | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Abraham Duquesne | Baba Hassan | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
11 fireships other small vessels | unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown | 500 dead[1] |
The bombardment of Algiers in 1682 was a naval operation by
Background
In October 1680, barbary pirates captured a number of French vessels, without declaration of war,[2] and took the captains and crews to Algiers as slaves. On 18 October the Dey of Algiers, Baba-Hassan, officially declared war on Louis XIV[3] and on 23 October, he announced the commencement to hostilities to the French consul, Jean Le Vacher.[4] At the same time, he also ordered twelve warships to sea. Learning of this, Louis XIV ordered his ministers to prepare a punitive expedition.
Command was given to
Duquesne left Toulon on 12 July at the head of eleven warships and five galiots.[2]
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On 18 July, after an easy crossing, Duquesne anchored at Ibiza where he met up with fifteen galleys commanded by the duc de Mortemart (1679–1688).
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Attack on Algiers
The fleet reached Algiers on 22 July 1682. Duquesne's orders were to bombard Algiers into complete submission. Preparing his attack, he sent a detachment of ships commanded by M. de la Maurinière to set fire to two Turkish ships in the port of Cherchell. He then arranged his vessels so as to be ready to attack Algiers, using his galleys to tow his ships of the line and galiots into position.[2]
However the weather was so bad that the first half of August without him being able to order the attack. On 15 August, he sent his galleys back to
On 16 August the longboats dropped their anchors near the mole and the galiots were hauled along the cables into position. However it was only on the night of the 20 August that the French were ready to begin their bombardment. The first assault was largely ineffective as the galiots were too far away from their targets, Nicolas Camelin and Pierre Landouillette de Logivière having misjudged the distance.[2]
The French decided that it would be better to anchor off the northwest of the city, and on the order of the chevalier de Tourville, Belle-Isle-Erard anchored two ships in position on the night of 20–21 August, and le chevalier de Lhéry brought up three others the next night, much closer in than the ships of Belle-Isle-Erard. Landouillette, captain of the bomb galiots, fired the mortars on board La Cruelle himself. The bombs barely reached the mole and did not touch the city. On 26 August they adjusted their positions again and after this kept up an intense and well-targeted bombardment until 5 September, inflicting serious damage on the port and the city.[2]
The second night of the bombardment was 30 August. The galiots hauled themselves into position along their cables and fired from much closer to the mole. Tourville, whom Duquesne had placed in command of the second attack, adjusted the ships’ distances again and brought the La Cruelle in before the lighthouse of Algiers. on the third night of bombardment, on the night of the 3 and 4 September, the galiots were closer in still, near the mole. The next night, Duquesne sent the galiots in closer still, 200–260
On 13 September, the corsair captains managed to manoeuvre their ships so as to threaten the French position.[7] Shortly afterwards, with bad weather making it impossible for the French to hold their positions, they were obliged to abandon the bombardment and retire to France.
Aftermath
Around 500 Algerians were killed, and fifty buildings demolished.[1]
The Jews of Marseilles were suspected of passing warnings to their co-religionists in Algiers about the impending French assault, and this led to their being temporarily expelled from the city.[8]
The next year, Duquesne sailed again to bombard Algiers for the second time in 1683.[9]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7867-4020-8.
- ^ a b c d e f Eugène Sue (1836). Histoire de la marine française: XVIIe siècle - Jean Bart. F. Bonnaire. pp. 145–151.
- ISBN 978-2-906431-65-2.
- ^ Henri Jean François Edmond Pellisier de Reynaud (1844). Mémoires historiques et géographiques sur l'Algérie. Imprimerie royale. p. 274.
- ^ Mary Louise Booth (1865). Martin's History of France: The Age of Louis XIV. Walker, Wise and Company. pp. 522.
- ISBN 978-94-010-2072-5.
- ISBN 978-9-961-96621-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-7784-1.
- ^ Eliakim Littell; Robert S. Littell (1854). Living Age ... Littell, Son and Company. p. 65.