Action of 28 September 1644

A 1707 engraving from the Theatrum Europaeum of the naval battle between Maltese and Ottoman ships

Date	28 September 1644
Location	about 70 miles (110 km) from Rhodes
Result	Knights' victory, pretext for the Ottoman invasion of Crete

Belligerents

Order of Saint John

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Boisbaudran †

Strength

6 galleys

10 ships

Casualties and losses

9 knights and

116 men killed

220 killed 380 persons were captured

1 galleon lost

9 knights and

220 killed 380 persons were captured

The Action of 28 September 1644 refers to a battle that took place on 28 September 1644 about 70 miles (110 km) from Rhodes, when six Maltese galleys under Boisbaudran defeated an Ottoman convoy of sailing ships.

The Maltese San Lorenzo, Santa Maria and Vittoria overhauled and attacked a Turkish galleon, while San Giuseppe and San Giovanni captured a smaller sailing ship and the "capitana" chased a vessel which turned out to be Greek, before returning to fight the galleon. After 7 hours, she was captured, with 220 of the 600 or more on board dead. Boisbaudran was killed, and the senior captain, Cotoner, of the San Lorenzo, took over command. Maltese casualties were 82 killed and 170 wounded, apart from their rowers. On the voyage home, there were several storms, and eventually the galleon was abandoned near Malta, and ended up wrecked on the Calabrian coast.

The Turkish convoy had been heading from Constantinople to Alexandria, and carried a number of pilgrims bound for Mecca, the exiled former Chief Black Eunuch, Sünbül Agha, as well as a woman, originally considered by her captors to be one of the wives of the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I, and her young son, who was therefore thought to be an heir to the Ottoman throne. This was eventually disputed, and many historians believe that she was a wife and/or a slave of Sünbül Agha and a former nurse of Mehmet IV. Some history books say that her name was Zafira, and that her son, named Osman, was born on January 2, 1642 - almost three months earlier than Mehmet IV (making Osman the eldest son of Ibrahim I and the true heir to the throne). Citizens of Manfredonia, Italy, believe that she was in fact a sultana – originally a girl by the name of Giacometta Beccarino, who was kidnapped from Manfredonia by Turks in 1620. (This practice was quite common among Ottoman rulers of the era; for example, the mother, the grandmother, the great-grandmother, and the first three wives of Ibrahim I were all of non-Turkish origin and were all sold to the harems of their respective husbands as slaves. However, unlike Giacometta Beccarino, they were typically sold to the harem at the age of 12 to 16 and would give birth to their first child by 17.)

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Wikipedia