The battle of Alboran ( es, batalla de Alborán) took place on 1 October 1540 off the isle of Alboran during the Ottoman-Habsburg

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for control of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

when a Spanish fleet under the command of

Bernardino de Mendoza Bernardino de Mendoza (c. 1540 – 3 August 1604) was a Spanish military commander, diplomat and writer on military history and politics. Biography Bernardino de Mendoza was born in Guadalajara, Spain around 1540, as the son of Don Alonso Su ...

destroyed an Ottoman fleet commanded by Ali Hamet, sinking a galley and capturing 10 other ships.

Background

In mid-1540 the Barbary pirate Ali Hamet, a

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

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in service of the Ottoman Empire, formed a small fleet at Algiers, as ordered by Admiral

Hayreddin Barbarossa Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an O ...

. He assembled three galleys, five galliots, six fustas, and two brigantines, manned by 900

galley slaves A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley, either a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar (''French'': galérien), or a kind of human chattel, often a prisoner of war, assigned to the duty of rowing. In the ancient Mediterranean ...

and 2,000 Turkish soldiers and

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Morisco Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open ...

s under the command of General Caramani, a former slave in the Spanish galleys. In August, knowing that Spanish galleys were in the Balearic Islands, the fleet set sail to the western waters of the

Alborán Sea The Alboran Sea (from Arabic , ''al-Baḥrān'') is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, w ...

. A few days later a thousand soldiers from the galleys landed on the beach of

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and attacked the village. Although they failed to capture the well-protected castle, 73 civilians were taken prisoner, 40 vessels moored in the port were plundered, and a galley under construction (owned by Don

Álvaro de Bazán the Elder Don (honorific), Don Álvaro de Bazán, called ''the Elder'' (1506–1558) was a Spanish naval commander from an old Navarrese noble family who received several nobilary titles such as the rank of ''Admiral of Castile'', ''Marquis del Viso'', and ' ...

) was burnt. The prisoners were carried off to Vélez de la Gomera, on the Moroccan coast, where they were imprisoned until their release following a payment of 7,000 ducats.

Battle

Bernardino de Mendoza, commander of the galleys of Spain, learned of the raid while in Denia. After being told that they had not gone through Oran, Mendoza anticipated that Hamet's fleet would return to Algiers along the African coast. Mendoza therefore sailed his 10 galleys to the west.Duro p. 251 On 1 October both fleets sighted each other near the island of Alborán. Hamet attacked the Spanish with great determination, hoping to use his numerical superiority to board Mendoza's ships; however, a Spanish artillery salvo inflicted severe damage on his ships before they could get close enough to engage the galleys.Duro p. 252 Hamet and Caramani attempted unsuccessfully to board Mendoza's flagship. The Spanish commander, aware that the outcome of the battle depended heavily on this fight, ordered his soldiers and rowers to move to one side of the galley, raising the opposite side to act as a

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against Hamet's galleys gunfire.Duro p. 252 Then Mendoza's soldiers boarded and captured Caramanis galley, killing Caramani and the majority of his crew. Next they boarded Hamet's galley and captured it, at which point Hamet jumped into the water and swam to another galley in his fleet.Duro p. 252 A Spanish galley commanded by Pedro de Guerra sank one Ottoman galley with a single shot and captured another by boarding it.Duro p. 252 The galley ''Santa Ana'', meanwhile, was attacked by two Algerian vessels, one of which was forced to surrender, while the other escaped.Duro p. 252 Hamet, who had been rescued by an Algerian galliot, was captured by Enrique Enríquez's galley while trying to escape.Duro p. 253 The battle ended with an incident during which Enrique Enríquez ordered his men to fire on an Ottoman galley believing it was still in Turkish hands. However, the crew of the ''Santa Bárbara'' had already captured the galley; seven Spanish died and twelve were injured.Duro p. 253

Aftermath

Of the 16 Ottoman ships, ten were captured and one sunk. More than 700 Turks, including all the captains, were killed. In addition, 427 of them were captured and 837 Christian slaves were freed. The Spanish, meanwhile, had 137 dead and about 500 wounded, including Bernardino de Mendoza, who was wounded in the head by a

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shot. To celebrate the victory a great procession was organized in Málaga, in which the freed prisoners, the crews of the Spanish galleys, their captains, and Bernardo de Mendoza himself participated.Duro p. 254 Shortly after the Emperor Charles V was informed of the victory by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, who recommended the Emperor thank God for the victory.Duro p. 254

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Alboran

Alboran Alboran Island ( es, Isla de Alborán) is a small islet of Spain ( province of Almería) in the Alboran Sea, part of the western Mediterranean Sea, about north of the Moroccan coast and from the Spanish mainland. The main buildings are an auto ...

Alborán 1540 in Africa Suleiman the Magnificent 1540 in the Ottoman Empire Alborán History of Almería