Free The Sultan's Admiral by Ernle Bradford Page B

float that supports a seine net (each bobbing within sight of one another), it is easy to see how twelve ships, stationed on the idle autumn sea, could command a large area. From a height of ten feet above the water, the distance of the sea horizon to a captain on the aft steering deck of a small galleot would be little more than 3 ,1/2 miles. But he could always send a lookout aloft up the mainmast, and increase his horizon distance to double this. Assuming that the Turkish vessels worked somewhere between these two points, it is likely that they cruised about five miles apart, moving eastwards into the Sardinia-Sicily strait. Twelve galleys, therefore, could easily cover a sea lane of sixty miles. The Barbarossas knew that it was in the area sixty to seventy miles south of Cape Spartivento, at the extreme southern tip of Sardinia, that they would find what they were looking for-—merchantmen making the last run of the season back to Spain with Corn from Sicily.
    “So, our corsair went on a cruise, with all his twelve galleots, towards Sardinia and Sicily, to try if he could pick up any barques laden with corn, or other provisions . . Some might say that they were lucky, but luck plays a comparatively small part in the career of a successful man of action. Luck is needed, certainly, but the prime requisites are intelligence and a first-class knowledge of the world in which he operates. Within a few days the galleots had netted three large merchantmen moving slowly homeward to Spain.
    The ships they captured were almost certainly of the type known as a galleasse—a transitional design between the oared-galley proper and the sailing merchantship. Some idea of the size of these ships can be gauged from the fact that the Portuguese and Spanish galleasses of this period usually carried over one hundred soldiers, and over two hundred galley slaves to work the oars. They did, indeed, carry guns with which to defend themselves, but they were primarily cargo-carrying merchant-ships. They might be compared, perhaps, to the merchantmen of the last two World Wars which had a few guns and trained crews to man them, but whose real duty was to transport cargo.
    Towing their three prizes behind them, the Turkish galleots walked casually back on their long legs of oars across the peaceful sea. They arrived at Djidjelli well before the storms of winter broke. By their successful action they had not only secured their own winter provisions, they had also gained the affection of the local inhabitants. “Out of this seasonable supply he [Aruj] made such liberal distributions among the hungry Djidjellians, and the neighbouring mountaineers … that he won their affections to such a degree that his word became a law and an oracle.”
    Aruj was never as intelligent as his younger brother, Khizr, but there can be little doubt that it was upon the well-based pragmatism of Aruj that the latter was to secure his later successes. He took great care to “cultivate and improve this mighty opinion that the natives had conceived of him; and had the address so well to manage matters that these indomitable mountain Africans, who all along had preferred their liberty against the powerful kings of Tunis and others … proclaimed him their Sovereign, with the royal title of Sultan.”
    Aruj now found himself the ruler of what was at any rate a first-class seaport—due south of the main western Mediterranean trading routes—and without obligation to any local king or sheikh. The year that had seemed to promise a kingdom in Bougie, and that had gone so ill with the desertion of his native troops and the arrival of the Spanish reinforcements, had ultimately ended well for the Barbarossas. Their ships were hauled ashore out of reach of the winter storms, their slaves were housed in rock quarries beneath the town, and they had security in which to plan for the insecurity of others.

6 - SULTAN OF ALGIERS
    Next spring Aruj Barbarossa consolidated his position.