Battle of Alborán

Battle of Alboran

An Ottoman Galley; image taken from a miniature.

Date	1 October 1540
Location	off Alboran, Spain
Result	Spanish victory

Belligerents

Spain

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Bernardino de Mendoza (WIA)

Ali Hamet (POW)

Strength

10 galleys

3 galleys,
5 galliots,
6 fustas,
2 brigantines

Casualties and losses

137 killed,
500 wounded

1 galley sunk,
10 ships captured,
700 killed,
437 captured,
837 slaves freed

The battle of Alboran (Spanish: batalla de Alborán) took place on 1 October 1540 off the isle of Alboran during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for the control of the Mediterranean when a Spanish fleet under the command of Bernardino de Mendoza destroyed an Ottoman fleet commanded by Ali Hamet, sinking a galley and capturing 10 other ships.

In mid-1540 the Barbary pirate Ali Hamet, a Sardinian renegade in service of the Ottoman Empire, formed a small fleet at Algiers, as ordered by Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa. He assembled three galleys, five galliots, six fustas and two brigantines, manned by 900 captive oarsmen and 2,000 Turkish soldiers and Valencian Moriscos 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. A few days later a thousand soldiers from the galleys landed on the beach of Gibraltar 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) 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.

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. 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.

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Wikipedia