Ottoman Navy Highlights

by Robert Koehler on June 28, 2007

Boy, that Ottoman Navy really got around, capturing the Icelandic (!) archipelago of Vestmannaeyjar in 1627 and the English island of Lundy in 1655.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 mateomiguel June 28, 2007 at 5:02 pm: It would be cooler if they also captured one or two Korean islands, like the British tried to do.
2 Robert Koehler June 28, 2007 at 5:22 pm: They did get as far as Aceh in Indonesia, though.
3 The Western Confucian June 28, 2007 at 8:45 pm: Amazing! Could you recommend any further reading on the exploits of the Ottoman Navy?
4 sewing June 28, 2007 at 11:13 pm: Wow, one learns something new every day….
5 madne0 June 29, 2007 at 3:42 am: Ottoman Navy? Hardly. Murat Reis (who was Dutch btw) was a Barbary Pirate. The Barbary Pirates were tolerated by the Ottomans because they concentrated their “enterprise” on Europeans, but they were not a part of the Ottoman navy.
More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Reis_the_Younger
and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turkish_abductions
6 madne0 June 29, 2007 at 3:45 am: I suspect that the story about the Lundy islands can be explained in the same way. They were not captured by the Ottomans, but by Barbary Pirates. I think the English would be quite cross if the Ottoman Empire were to conquer a part of their kingdom, even one as small as the Lundy islands. Pirates? They could (more or less) ignore.
7 Paul H. June 29, 2007 at 8:07 am: Since the Barbary pirates flew the Ottoman flag at least part of the time when they were conducting their raids (see your first link about Murat Rais, second paragraph), I think they could be considered part of the Ottoman “navy”, defending upon how one chooses to define “navy”.

It would be interesting to know if “a piece of the action” from the slave trade of the Barbary pirates made its way back to the Sultan in Constantinople; if it did, that would support my proposition.

It would comprise another interesting pre-modern example of “plausible deniability” — like Elizabeth I and her “privateersmen” at times of nominal peace between England and Spain. One imagines the Sultan counting the gold from his “take” in one part of the palace, while elsewhere on the same day he assures indignant western ambassadors that he shares their indignation over the latest outrages perpetrated by his nominal but out-of-control subjects in the eastern Med.
8 madne0 June 29, 2007 at 11:42 am: Paul H.: Well, at least it’s the first time i’ve seen the Barbary Pirates be described as part of the Ottoman navy. Even if sometimes they flew the Ottoman flag (and if you see that Wikipedia article i posted, that was just in the early stages of his “career”, well before the Iceland raids) the Ottoman involvement was much more “hands off” then in the English privateering case.
The Ottomans simply had no need or interest in raiding or taking possession of some god forsaken English or, much less, Icelandic islands. This was done without any kind of direct Ottoman intervention, i’d wager.
9 Paul H. June 29, 2007 at 12:29 pm: The two arguably most historically significant naval vessels in the entire history of the Ottoman Navy never had the Ottoman flag raised over them, having been seized by the British Crown at the outbreak of WWI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Agincourt_%281913%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erin

3rd and 4th most important ships in Ottoman Navy history (these did fly the Ottoman flag and fight in combat under said flag):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Goeben_and_Breslau#Consequences

What has the Ottoman navy to do with Korea, you ask? Why, everything! If you put the historical actions surrounding these ships together with the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1903, anyone can readily see that it is the fault of perfidious Albion (and not the good ol’ USA) that things in Korea are the way they are.

Not to mention the thousands of Koreans currently in mortal peril in northern Iraq! It’s the Brits’ fault; I regret it has to take some good blarney from an American of Irish descent to point out the obvious.

I just can’t understand why tens of thousands of Koreans haven’t marched on that well-photographed and documented British embassy, to take it apart brick by brick like the Bastille — all the way down to that infuriating cornerstone, the one that insolently fails to mention the name of the Korean emperor of the era.

I suppose it’s due to Koreans’ inherent good manners, not to mention their respect for historical landmarks. The Brits are the fortunate (but thoroughly undeserving) beneficiaries of Korean manners and good taste.
10 murat July 29, 2008 at 9:34 pm: History of the Ottoman Navy
http://www.barbaros.biz/Barbarossa.htm