Corsairs of Algiers

At the beginning of the 17th century, Algiers' pirate fleet numbered 100 ships and employed 8,000 to 10,000 men. The piracy "industry" accounted for 25 percent of the workforce of the city, not counting other activities related directly to the port. The fleet averaged 25 ships in the 1680s, but these were larger vessels than had been used the 1620s, thus the fleet still employed some 7,000 men.[28]

The introduction of round ships by the Flemish corsair Zymen Danseker and the arrival of expelled Moriscos from Spain contributed strongly to the development of the fleet of Algiers,^[2] which was modernized and enlarged,^[29] it numbered as follows:

• In 1625, the corsair fleet included six Galleasses, a large number of brigantines and a hundred Galleyes, more than sixty of them were equipped with 24 to 40 guns.^[21]
• In 1630, about 70 ships were in the port of the capital, with what the Algerians owned from the French years prior, and^{[clarification needed]}
• in 1632, 13 galleys were in the port, all of which were driven by oars, and 70 others with sails, and 23 boats of 30 to 50 cannons.
• In 1634, the Algerian fleet consisted of 70 vessels, each of which was armed with between 25 and 40 cannons.
• In 1657, the number decreased to 23 ships, and each ship included 30 to 50 cannons.
• In 1662, there were 22 barges and nine galleys in the capital, and in 1681 there were only 17 barges and two large ships with heavy weapons of 112 cannons. These 17 ships were mentioned by their names in the report of Sieur Hayet, among them: the Golden Mare, the Rose, the little Rose, the city of Algiers, the Marzouk, the Canaria.^[30]
• On the consul's Fiolle report, he says that in 1686: "The ship called "the Golden Rose" was armed with 40 cannons, the "Seven Stars" with 30 cannons, the "Golden Lion" equipped with 32 cannons, and that there were also on this date, 10 ships with two bridges, each containing 30 cannons, and 10 single-barreled ships, each containing 14 cannons, sometimes reaching 20. There were also two ships with two bridges containing 45 cannons and a fire equipped with 20 cannons, and five other ships, two of them with 50 cannons, two with 30 cannons, and besides that, there were 39 ships for transport and trade".
• It came in the report of Dr. Duke de Grafton^{[clarification needed]} dated October 14, 1687, that the number of Algerian ships in the diversity of their forms and the difference in weight and their cargo amounted to 60 ships, which had 570 cannons in total.^[30]

Later navy

In the 18th century the number of Algerian ships diminished and was varying from 20 to 30 ships and were mostly Xebecs armed with 12 to 32 cannons.

• During the Barbary Wars the said number increased in 1802 to 66 barges, each with between 25 and 80 long-range cannons
• In 1815, the number decreased to 41 ships, and there were only five battleships, the General Consul of the United States of America William Shaler tells about the Algerian Navy in 1815: "The Algerian fleet was composed of five frigates with 38 to 50 cannons and five corvettes".
• In 1816, four barges and 30 ships. Gouthrot^{[clarification needed]} says on that date only two battleships of 50 to 60 cannons, two corvettes with five cannons, two barges of 80 cannons, four galleys of 15 to 26 cannons, and one ship of 20 cannon of the polacre type, and 35 ships.
• In 1820, 32 ships numbering 368 cannons.^[31]

Among these ships were the well-known "Al-Marikana", the famous "Mashouda" and the 44 cannon captured vessel "Portuguesa", the latter was captured by Rais Hamidou from the Portuguese navy in May 1802 with 282 prisoners, but then it was lost and others were burned when Lord admiral Exmouth attacked Algiers in 1816. There are also names for other ships, such as the Miftah al-Salam, Dik al-Marsa, Guide to Alexandria, and others seized.by the Algerian Navy, which left them with the names by which they were previously known.^[30]

How the corsairs operated

Jihad against Spain: Barbary galleys in the Mediterranean

During most of the 16th century; maritime wars were undertaken with fleets of thirty to forty galleys.

slavery for the captured, became prevalent in Algiers and were actually the main industry and source of revenues of the Regency.^[24] The corsairs targeted Spanish commerce, and interrupted maritime communications with Spanish domains in Italy by boarding vessels, capturing crews and cargoes and taking everything back to Algiers, enriching it at the expanse of Spanish trade.^[34]

The severe discipline and care, made the Algiers galley a war instrument of the first order; the damage that the rais caused the enemies of the Ottoman sultan was so significant that Spanish Benedictine and historian Diego Haëdo wrote:^[35]

Algerian corsairs provided much needed help to the attempted rebellion of the Moriscos. In this long war, the raïs of Algiers had no rival; They showed incessant ardor and temerity almost always crowned with success. At a signal from the Sultan, they were seen running forward and fighting in the front ranks, as in Bejaïa, Malta, Lepanto and Tunis, where they acquired the well-deserved reputation of being the best and bravest sailors in the Mediterranean.^[36] French writer Louis de Baudicour [fr] wrote:^[37]

Algiers had become the firmest support of the Sultans of Constantinople. No event took place in the Mediterranean basin without the Algerian corsairs taking part in it. The main force of the entire Ottoman Navy rested on them.

Atlantic razzias: Hunt for enemy merchant ships

Ra'ises (captains of corsair ships) such as Murat Rais the Elder in the 1580s and Hamidou Raïs at the turn of the 19th century distinguished themselves through audacious attacks on Christian ships and bringing important prizes to Algiers.^[38]

Mediterranean ships were at first the main targets of the corsairs, but the raïs appeared in the oceans as soon as they adopted the use of round vessels. Exploring the routes of India and America, they disturbed the commerce of all enemy nations. In 1616, Rais Mourad the Younger (Jan Janszoon) plundered the coasts of Iceland, from where he brought back to Algiers 400 captives. In 1619 the corsairs ravaged Madeira. In 1631, they sacked Baltimore in Ireland, blocked the English Channel, and seized ships in the North Sea towards the 1650s.^[39][29] Algerian pirate naval warfare was intelligent and flexible, but its countermeasures were incredibly clumsy. The Algerians used xebecs, fast-sailed galleys, to attack individual merchant ships when there was no wind. Algerians usually hid five to seven xebecs behind a large cliff near the coast, each with at least 100 soldiers. A clifftop lookout would spot European ships and signal them to approach. Europeans usually surrendered quickly when faced with a much superior attacking force. In the defense, the corsairs usually expected only the death of many sailors and certain defeat.^[40]

The raïs pushed audacity so far as to found in Livorno,^[2] with the authorization of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to whom they paid high royalties, a penal colony warehouse, where they came to deposit under the guard of the soldiers of the Grand Duke, the Christian slaves likely to obtain their freedom by means of a ransom. They still had a station at Cape Verde to be nearer to stopping the Indian galleons. The Republic of Genoa tolerated for a very long time the traffic in its ports of goods coming from the looting of the rais.^[39]

Naval spoils

The spoils of the Corsairs multiplied in the first period of the regency, then began to decrease until they almost disappeared in the eighteenth century. By the end of the deys period they witnessed a remarkable growth with the attempt to develop the navy and increase its military activity, especially during the period of Europe's preoccupation with the wars of the French Revolution and the conquests of Napoleon. The renewed activity of the Algerian Navy was linked to the efforts of sailors led by Rais Hamidou (1790-1815). Of the naval spoils, the state used to take one fifth, and distribute the rest to the shipowners who had contributed to equipping the fleet.

Spoils according to years

^[41][42]

• 1556: 28 ships were captured near
  Gibraltar strait
• 1608 - 1621: Nearly 1000 European ships were captured, among them 447 of Dutch nationality, 193 French, 120 Spanish, 60 English, and 50 from various German principalities. More than 12,000 people were enslaved.^[43]
• 1619 - 1627: More than 20,000 people were captured
• 1628 - 1634: 80 ships were captured during the war against France with 1331 people, which made the value of the total spoils in that war rise to about 4,752,000 pounds. Pere dan^{[clarification needed]} estimated the value of seized cargo at around 20,000,000 francs, and one million people enslaved.
• 1737 - 1799: the rais took 376 ships. In 1785, Genoese, Venetian and Neapolitan ships were captured, their spoils estimated at 75,000,000 francs. In 1793, 11 American ships were captured and 100 American sailors were enslaved, then 16 Portuguese ships were captured by Rais Hamidou in 1797 along with 118 prisoners.
• 1800 - 1802: The spoils were estimated at 575,152 francs, and 20 ships were seized, of which 19 were Neapolitan, in addition to another Portuguese ship seized by Rais Hamidou, equipped with 44 cannons, its value estimated at 194,231.25 francs.
• 1805 - 1815: The value of spoils was estimated at 8 million francs, from 1800 prisoners and 30 ships. A truce in 1810 was followed by the treaty of 1813 with Portugal, in which 541 Portuguese prisoners were ransomed for 850,000 Algerian doro
• 1825: The spoils reached eight ships, mostly Dutch, Spanish and English, with an estimated value of about 770,415.74 francs.
• 1817 - 1827: the value of spoils was approximately 700,000 francs, with 26 Greek ships seized.

Corsair city of Algiers

Defences

In 1529, Hayreddin Barbarossa seized the Peñon facing the city of Algiers from the Spanish and linked the rock to the port by building a pier.^[44] This allowed Algiers to become a secure port for naval and corsair companies. The city became the main base for corsairs in the Mediterranean.^[45] This domination enabled him to repel several attacks from a number of European countries, in particular, in October 1541, that of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, whose troops were defeated by the forces of the regency under the command of Hassan Agha, well aided by a storm which destroyed a good part of the enemy fleet.

In response Hassan Agha ordered the construction of a large artillery piece, designed in the foundries of Dar Ennahas, near the Bab El Oued gate in 1542, by a Venetian master builder in the pay of the beylerbey of Algiers, Hassan Agha. The cannon was placed during the completion of the "Kheir Eddine pier" at the end, on the Bordj Amar.^{[46][unreliable source?]}

Oruç Barbarossa built a new kasbah a little above the previous Berber kasbah. Hayreddin and his successors rebuilt the wall surrounding the town, 36 t42 feet high, and some one and a half miles in length, of unbaked brick bonded with good mortar, resting on a substructure of concrete. The sea-front, though thick and high, was not solid enough to resist massive assaults. The wall accordingly was protected by a moat some 20 to 26 feet deep and 37 to 48 feet across, reinforced by square towers and slightly projecting bastions.^[47] Two more large works protected Khair al-Din. The breakwater and the Fishery Arsenal were protected by the parapet, crenellated and pierced with embrasures for muskets and cannon. Access to the town was through five main gates. The Bab Jdid or New Gate was to the south-west at the foot of the kasbah, Bab Azoun was to the south, the most important since people entered this way from the hinterland It was linked by a long mercantile street to the Bab al-Oued to the north. The 'Island' or 'Holy War' gate (Bāb al-Jazira or Bab al-Jihad), through which the raïs passed, opened on to the mole,^{[clarification needed]} and finally the 'Fish', 'Fishery' or 'Customs' gate (Bab Es-serdin), opened onto the road leading up from the harbour.^[47]

Outside the wall several forts supplemented the seafront fortifications. The Eulj 'Ali burj, built in 1568-1569 and known as the 'fort of the twenty-four hours', guarded the Bab al-Oued beach. On the landward side the approaches to the town were defended by the fort known as the 'Star', built above the kasbah in 1568, and the Emperor Fort (Sultan Kalassi) built facing south between 1545 and 1580 on the site of the camp of Charles V.^[48]

Urban area

In the confined space enclosed within the walls white houses were grouped closely together with terraces rising in tiers, their overhanging canopies supported on beams jutting so far out over the narrow streets as to sometimes meet those across the way, thus forming a ceiling of corduroy or of groined vaulting.^{[clarification needed]} It was not until the end of the fifteenth century that the rais built their costly dwellings in the lower town.^[48] In Algiers, as in the other Barbary ports, the captains tended to maintain houses in the western part of the city, close to the kasbah, with their crews quartered close by. This was a precaution against any attack by political or domestic opponents, and it helped to ensure that the community of privateers formed an identifiable political and social bloc in the city.^[18] These new constructions modified the outward aspect of the town, which remained a Maghrebi city, although the greater part of the inhabitants were not of the Maghreb. Likewise, the interior arrangement of some rich houses was no longer of Maghrebi style.

According to Diego de Haëdo, about the year 1580 Algiers had a hundred mosques, chapels or zawiyas, not one of which survives. There were 'prayer halls with parallel naves and pitched tile roofs'.^[49]

Christian captives

Share and use of slaves

When a corsair ship returned to Algiers towing its booty, goods and captives were landed. The pasha would take his fifth, in addition to the body and tackle of the captured ship, then the cargo was sold. The slaves not chosen by the pasha were led into the Badestan, a long street closed at both ends, located on the site of the current Mahon square in Algiers. There, brokers ran the captives naked, so that buyers could make their selections. Half of the proceeds from these sales belonged to the outfitter of the capturing vessel: individual, company, rais himself; the other half was divided into shares, of which forty went to the captain, thirty to the agha of the Janissaries on board, ten to the officers, and the rest to the sailors and the soldiers.^[50]

Until the use of round vessels in the 17th century, which did away with oars, the rais composed the crews of their galleys, which were generally very low in the water, with slaves they bought for this purpose, or captured at sea or on the Christian coasts. The rowers were tied to their benches, as many as 300 on a single vessel. When, at the beginning of the 17th century, sail became the only form of navigation, the use of slaves on corso ships diminished notably; but the raïs still employed a few for heavy work: turning the capstan, towing other boats, cleaning and so on.^[19]

Number of slaves

The number of European Christians in captivity in the city of Algiers alone was estimated at about one million people throughout the seventeenth century, equivalent to a quarter of the city's population, numbering at that time about 100,000 people.^{[clarification needed]} In the four beylik prisons established specifically for this purpose after 1607, most prisoners were released for ransom, some converted to Islam -- 8000 in 1634 of a total of 35,000 prisoners -- and some were integrated into the population and became an active in society, like many of the beleyrbeys who assumed power before the era of the pashas.^[51] The work that these prisoners carried out was divided between social services and economic tasks within the city of Algiers, and agricultural work outside the city of Algiers. The number of prisoners varied from year to year.

The following table extracted from European sources presents aggregate estimates for the city of Algiers according to year:^[41]

Among the most famous of these prisoners were:^[51]

1. French scientist Petrus Gyllius, captured in 1546 while traveling from France to Greece on a scientific mission at the request of King Francis I of France.
2. Dominique de Gourgues, the hero of Florida County, captured while traveling from Europe to America (1558).
3. Famous Italian painter Fra Filippo Lippi de Madone, imprisoned in 1435
4. Italian writer Emmanuel d'Aranda de Bruges, captured while traveling from France to Spain in 1640.
5. French comic poet, who wrote the story known as the Beautiful Provençal, Jean-François Regnard, captured in 1678.
6. Famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote and the Moriscan plays inspired by his memories in Algeria. He remained in captivity in Algeria from 1575 to 1580.
7. French scientist Jean Foy-Vaillant was captured in 1674, when he was on a scientific trip to study money, commissioned by King Louis XIV.
8. Italian cleric apriest of the city of Catania, called
   Caraccioli
   , captured in 1561.
9. Italian poet Antonio Veneziano, captured along with Don Carlo Davagona in April 1578.
10. Writer Rene de Bois (Rene de Boys), captured in 1642.

Privateers and enslavemement of Christians originating from Algiers were major problems for centuries, leading to regular punitive expeditions by European powers:

• Spain (1567, 1775, 1783)
• Denmark (1770)
• France (1661, 1665, 1682, 1683, 1688)
• England (1622, 1655, 1672)

All led to naval bombardment of Algiers.^[24] Abraham Duquesne fought Barbary pirates in 1681 and bombarded Algiers between 1682 and 1683 to help Christian captives.^[53]

Emblems

• 18th
• 
  Regency war standard from John Beaumont's album (1705).^[54]
• 
  Pavilion of the dey of Algiers according to the album by John Beaumont (1705).^[54]
• 
  Type of maritime flag of the regency of Algiers^[54][55]
• 
  Type of maritime flag of the regency of Algiers.^[55]
• 
  Example of a flag used by corsairs of the Algiers regency.^[55]
• 
  Example of a flag used by corsairs of the Algiers regency.^[55]
• 
  Type of maritime flag of the regency of Algiers.^[56]
• 
  A pavilion of the regency of Algiers^[57]
• 
  A standard of the regency of Algiers^[58]
• 
  Pavilion of the Regency of Algiers (17th-18th centuries)(B. Dubreuil)

Gallery

• 
  A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthoniszoon and Cornelis Bol
• 
  A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsair by Laureys a Castro (1664–1700)
• 
  Spanish engagement with Barbary pirates by Andries van Eertvelt (1590–1652)
• 
  An English Ship in Action with Barbary Vessels by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707)
• 
  A Spanish xebec facing two Algerian corsair galiots by Ángel Cortellini y Sánchez
• 
  Barbary corsairs in action, by Niels Simonsen (1844)

References