Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
British and Dutch strike back!
The Algerian corsairs (pirates) in the Mediterranean, who are more or less secretly supported by the Dey of Algiers, Omar Pascha, have been too crazy lately!
They just can't let go of their bad habit of boarding merchant ships from Christian states ...
... to steal their cargo and to sell their crews and passengers - as far as they are Christians - into slavery in Algiers!
Britain swears vengeance - and does what it has always done in similar cases:
19 heavily armored ships of the line - each with at least 74 ore more cannons on board - are departed from Gibraltar under the command of Admiral of the Fleet Edward Pellew, First Viscount of Exmouth ...
... marched towards Algiers, the complete battle armada of the British Mediterranean fleet.
To evacuate the British Consul General Hugh McDonell from Algiers, the fast corvette HMS "Prometheus" under Commander William Dashwood is sent ahead ...
The plan fails, however, and McDonell ...
... and 18 crew members of the "Prometheus" who are supposed to escort him to the ship are arrested.
After an unsuccessful protest by the captain of the "Prometheus" at Omar Pascha against the arrest, he sails from Algiers to rejoin the fleet.
A smaller fleet joins the British on the way:
Eleven Dutch frigates under the command of Admiral Theodorus Frederik van Capellen ...:
The Dutch, a trading nation whose ships are particularly hard hit by the Algerian goings-on, are also fed up.
It is not for nothing that the above copper engraving of the slave market in Algiers has a Dutch caption!
The next picture shows the huge British flagship HMS "Queen Charlotte" (100 cannons, second from left) left and the much smaller Dutch flagship "Leander" in the middle - the ship commanders with their dinghies are just going to the council of war on the British ship ...:
Admiral van Capellen can give his British colleague a valuable gift:
He has already had the port and roadstead of Algiers carefully cleared up and the best anchorages for ships and the ideal angles for their artillery to be neatly mapped!
On the morning of August 27, 1816, the combined fleets appear off Algiers and make short work of them!
First they shoot down the corsair ships, then destroy the entire Algerian fleet (5 frigates, 4 corvettes, a brig, a galley and 37 sloops with a total of 351 cannons) and then begin to bomb the city ...:
The contemporary map shows the berths of the combined fleets ...:
The Dutch frigates play a special role:
They are smaller and have a shallower draft! So you can drag them very close to the shore in rowboats, where their smaller cannons can be used with deadly precision, while the British ships anchored further out with their heavy guns hit them with the "big flail" ...
The Algerians are shooting back from the city walls - but their guns are outdated and poorly maintained. There is little you can do until the cannons are destroyed by the ship artillery ...:
Around noon, Dey Omar Pascha...
... asks the British and Dutch through a messenger to stop the fire. The city is now ablaze.
The admirals demand the immediate release of all Christians who are being held in Algiers - and the reimbursement of ransoms already paid!
The Dey refuses - and the fire is opened again ...:
In the afternoon - after the Janissaries in Algiers otherwise threatened mutiny! - then lets Omar Pascha announce that he will submit and meet the conditions and asks the two admirals to negotiate peace on land ...:
Thereupon 1,211 Christian slaves are transferred to the British and the Dutch - from Algiers alone, as is neatly recorded in the logbook of the British flagship - 1,083!
The news from Algiers is spreading like wildfire on the North African coast! In order to spare their cities a fate similar to that of the heavily destroyed Algiers, the rulers of Tunis and Tripoli "voluntarily" release a further 1,642 Christian slaves ...
The Algerian corsairs (pirates) in the Mediterranean, who are more or less secretly supported by the Dey of Algiers, Omar Pascha, have been too crazy lately!
They just can't let go of their bad habit of boarding merchant ships from Christian states ...
... to steal their cargo and to sell their crews and passengers - as far as they are Christians - into slavery in Algiers!
Britain swears vengeance - and does what it has always done in similar cases:
19 heavily armored ships of the line - each with at least 74 ore more cannons on board - are departed from Gibraltar under the command of Admiral of the Fleet Edward Pellew, First Viscount of Exmouth ...
... marched towards Algiers, the complete battle armada of the British Mediterranean fleet.
To evacuate the British Consul General Hugh McDonell from Algiers, the fast corvette HMS "Prometheus" under Commander William Dashwood is sent ahead ...
The plan fails, however, and McDonell ...
... and 18 crew members of the "Prometheus" who are supposed to escort him to the ship are arrested.
After an unsuccessful protest by the captain of the "Prometheus" at Omar Pascha against the arrest, he sails from Algiers to rejoin the fleet.
A smaller fleet joins the British on the way:
Eleven Dutch frigates under the command of Admiral Theodorus Frederik van Capellen ...:
The Dutch, a trading nation whose ships are particularly hard hit by the Algerian goings-on, are also fed up.
It is not for nothing that the above copper engraving of the slave market in Algiers has a Dutch caption!
The next picture shows the huge British flagship HMS "Queen Charlotte" (100 cannons, second from left) left and the much smaller Dutch flagship "Leander" in the middle - the ship commanders with their dinghies are just going to the council of war on the British ship ...:
Admiral van Capellen can give his British colleague a valuable gift:
He has already had the port and roadstead of Algiers carefully cleared up and the best anchorages for ships and the ideal angles for their artillery to be neatly mapped!
On the morning of August 27, 1816, the combined fleets appear off Algiers and make short work of them!
First they shoot down the corsair ships, then destroy the entire Algerian fleet (5 frigates, 4 corvettes, a brig, a galley and 37 sloops with a total of 351 cannons) and then begin to bomb the city ...:
The contemporary map shows the berths of the combined fleets ...:
The Dutch frigates play a special role:
They are smaller and have a shallower draft! So you can drag them very close to the shore in rowboats, where their smaller cannons can be used with deadly precision, while the British ships anchored further out with their heavy guns hit them with the "big flail" ...
The Algerians are shooting back from the city walls - but their guns are outdated and poorly maintained. There is little you can do until the cannons are destroyed by the ship artillery ...:
Around noon, Dey Omar Pascha...
... asks the British and Dutch through a messenger to stop the fire. The city is now ablaze.
The admirals demand the immediate release of all Christians who are being held in Algiers - and the reimbursement of ransoms already paid!
The Dey refuses - and the fire is opened again ...:
In the afternoon - after the Janissaries in Algiers otherwise threatened mutiny! - then lets Omar Pascha announce that he will submit and meet the conditions and asks the two admirals to negotiate peace on land ...:
Thereupon 1,211 Christian slaves are transferred to the British and the Dutch - from Algiers alone, as is neatly recorded in the logbook of the British flagship - 1,083!
The news from Algiers is spreading like wildfire on the North African coast! In order to spare their cities a fate similar to that of the heavily destroyed Algiers, the rulers of Tunis and Tripoli "voluntarily" release a further 1,642 Christian slaves ...
