Naval Knights on Malta
The Hospital ...
considered itself permanently at war with the infidel ...
The Turk in the Levant and the Muslim corsair from Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli ... along the Barbary coast ...
On their own through their regular statutory caravans or cruises throughout the Mediterranean, or with allies in formal war ...
Hospitallers tirelessly strive to seek him out, capture his ships, seize his merchandise, and carry his men into slavery ...
the whole relentless endeavour to keep the idea of the crusade alive ...
[V Mallia-Milanes, 2003, 'Images of the Other: Venice's Perception of the Knights of Malta', Racial Discrimination and Ethnicity in European History, 63-77]
NOTABLE NAVAL VICTORIES of the KNIGHTS OF MALTA
These words formed the title of a newspaper feature piece run in the Sunday Times of Malta on December 20, 2015. The article traced a number of battles at sea that were depicted in paintings from the Palazzo Falson Collection in Malta. It takes its theme from a a paper delivered there during History Week in 1994 by Joseph Muscat. To quote this historian:
"A policing role against all Muslim shipping was maintained by the warships of the Order in the Mediterranean Sea. The Knights insisted on the right of search on all ships sailing in all directions of the Mediterranean ... there was a tacit acceptance on the part of Christian shipping ... the fourth vow of the Knights obliged them to fight Muslim forces always and everywhere even when outnumbered by three to one."
'In the 16th and 17th century, the Order's important warships were the galleys, oared vessels rowed by galley slaves ... rigged with the characteristic triangular lateen sails ...
Before 1625 all the galleys were painted red while the parts below the waterline were white. In 1625 the practice was introduced of painting the flagship, or capitana, black.
The galleys had very good maneuverability as they were not dependent on wind conditions, but lacked firepower because cannon could not be fired from the sides ... used mostly in close skirmishes, often culminating in ramming and boarding the enemy vessels.
1638 : The earliest battle in this series involved the Order's squadron and three Tripolitanian vessels led by Becassa di Tripoli, a notorious Christian renegade who had switched from the Cross to the Crescent after receiving his nautical training in the Maltese Corso. His valour and prowess in the Muslim navy earned him the title of Ammiraglio di Barbaria.
The incident started when the Order's squadron received information that two vessels belonging to the Pasha of Tripoli were in the vicinity of La Roccella on the Calabrian coast. On proceeding to the location they found two large vascelli (square-rigged galleons) and one smaller pollacca (both square-rigged and lateen sails). Six oared galleys of the Knights engaged three much larger Muslim vessels carrying 500 men-at-arms and 45 cannon. The galleys attacked in pairs and rammed the three ships.
The water-colour painting shows one of the enemy ships being engaged by two of the Order's lateen-rigged galleys in the foreground. The other two Tripolitanian ships appear further back, each being harried by two Maltese galleys. One of the galleys engaged in the attack depicted at right is the flagship, distinguished by its black colour, while the Moorish vessel at left background is the pollacca. The Order's galleys are all being rowed furiously prior to ramming and boarding the enemy vessels, their lateen sails furled in order not to hinder the firing of their guns. A fleet of eight small vessels appears in the distance to the right of the Calabrian coastline.
After furious onboard fighting the Moorish vessels eventually surrendered. Becassa was humbled, about 200 Muslims had perished, and 100 Christian slaves had been liberated. The Order's vessels lost 40 men, including eight Knights. The Order's squadron returned to Malta with their valuable prizes, entering the harbour with the flags of the conquered vessels hoisted above the stern of the victorious galleys.
1668 : This large canvas depicts a scene in which the Order's galleys attack an Algerian vessel, an action described at length by the Knight's historian in Historia della Sacra Religione. The Galera Padrona was the first to attack and ram the Algerian corsair, and the San Pietro, Sajn Nicola and San Giovanni soon joined in the fray. Finally the battered enemy ship surrendered, after it was boarded and a small-arms skirmish took place.
Fra. Gaston de Boisson Beauteville and Fra. Tomasco Accarigio, who were at the forefront of the boarding party, were killed, together with six men-at-arms; 25 of the Order's men were wounded. 152 slaves were captured, including 17 renegades, while 40 Christian slaves were liberated. Among the latter was a gentildonna Palermitano. The booty included a number of chests containing a total of 4,000 Reali.
The oil painting shows the Barbary vessel surrounded and engaged by four lateen rigged galleys of the Order. The galley on the right is the capitana or flagship, distinguishable by its black colour. This was a celebrated naval victory and is the subject of a number of works of art. The Sultana Benghen episode is referred to by a number of 18th century authors.
Spinola proceeded to Malta with his prize in a blaze of glory, so much so that on his arrival he was visited by both Grand Master Perellos and the Inquisitor Mgr Massarini representing the Pope. The Grand Master ordered the standard of the Sultana to be put in the church of St John in Aix, the birthplace of chevalier Richard, as a monument to the valour of that knight who had chiefly contributed to the victory.
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WORKING PARTS IN A MILITARY MACHINE
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Order's fleet of galleys perpetuated the crusading tradition by an annual caruane, famous yearly cruises through the the East Mediterranean or along the coast of North Africa ― usually planned to take place from May to September ― in search of Muslim shipping. The sea-going caravans replaced the old military campaigns of the crusaders in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
'The Knights of St John arrived in Malta in 1530 and settled in Birgu which was the only town on the island situated on the coast. The Order possessed a small fleet consisting of two big ships and three galleys, which by the time of the Battle of Preveza in 1538, became four ... Pope Paul requested the Order to be part of the League [of the Spanish Empire, Republic of Venice and the Papacy] ... The Knights formed a 'caravan' assigning 45 knights to each galley besides the rest of the crew ... In all a contingent of 180 Knights besides the regular soldiers joined the League ... they formed a sort of elite corps of professionally trained soldiers capable of successfully undertaking amphibious landings ...'
"A feature of the big galleys used in Mediterranean warfare during the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries was the enormous complement they carried, not infrequently approaching five hundred men, sometimes even reaching the six hundred mark. Apart from a nucleus of about twenty-five knights and serving brothers, each galley of the Order carried a mixed crew of sailors, rowers, and homini d'armamento (soldiers). The galera Capitana, as a rule, carried more men than other galleys including some thirty Knights; its complement of both sailors and homini d'armamento varied over time. In 1618 the capitana carried a crew of 180 men together with 160 homini d'armamento.
Unfortunately, information about the galley rowers is sparser. From the 1579 report of Archbishop Torres ― at a time when the Order was fitting out three rather than four galleys ― we learn that there were 277 buonavoglia (debtors), 216 forzati (criminals) and 200 slaves, which works out at 230 rowers per galley, although the larger galleys of the seventeenth century required more rowers at the benches. The slaves were Muslims from the Maghreb or from the Ottoman Levant, commonly referred to as 'Turks', captured either during warlike expeditions or during the regular corsairing operations. The primary purpose of capturing such slaves was precisely that of having them chained to the benches."
'The naval recruitment and rotation system known as the 'caravan', required four six-month-long cruises for all new Knights before they could become full members of the Order. A young aristocrat from one of the eight langues (nationalities) first had to be accepted by a priory in his homeland. After that the young novice paid his 'passage' on the Order's ships and arrived at the Convent. Upon the completion of his novitiate, he would pronounce his religious profession of chastity, obedience and poverty, and receive the Order's black habit with an octagonal white cross. Only after this stage could the novice begin forming his 'caravans' to study the art of navigation and naval combat as a soldier, head of artillery, naval officer, or as a galley captain if he were older than 25. The ultimate goal of all members of the Order of St John was to obtain the right to a commandery in Europe [a form of 'honourable retirement' after years of years of active duty and combat at sea in the Mediterranean].'
"The other protagonists were the galleys themselves. In the 1660s, the Hospitaller fleet hovered between six to seven galleys. Each galley could carry as many as 500 men, ranging from high-ranking knights to lowly chained Muslim slaves who rowed the vessels. The galley had sails but its real feature and strength were its oars. It was low-lying, very crammed, and there was not much space for food and water. A galley relied on speed and frequent stops to replenish its supplies ...
A final, humble, but essential protagonist was the biscuit. Rather than shipping in vast quantities of supplies to Malta, it made more sense for the Order to have a depot in Sicily, and since the late 1640s it was generally Augusta. Here the Order had ovens that produced the mainstay of every galley in the Mediterranean : il biscotto, dry biscuit or hard-tack. This was a simple type of dense biscuit or cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt, which was inexpensive and long-lasting ... The ovens at Augusta baked huge quantities of biscuit ... It was fundamental to life at sea, and it was standard procedure that Augusta would be the first port-of-call for the Hospitaller fleet after it left Malta, and before it left for anywhere else ...
[The island of] Port Mahon was a regular pitstop for the galleys of Malta when they were in this part of the Mediterranean ... [For example], "On 31st July 1664 captain-general Galdiano unloaded his supply of biscuit from the biscuit vessel (tartana del biscotto), which he then sent to Malta with news of their success and a list of the dead and the injured ... [The rest of the armada] headed to Port Mahon where on the 12th they took on fresh supplies and careened the galleys [turned the hulls on their side for cleaning and repairs, from Latin carina, keel]" ... "On 15th July 1667 they sailed north in order to careen the galleys and take on board biscuit."
[S Mercieca, 2010, 'The Battle of Preveza 1538, the Knights of Malta's Perspective', Naval Knights of Malta, 17.
A Atauz, 2004, 'Naval Organisation of the Order of St John', Trade, Piracy, and Naval Warfare in the Central Mediterranean: The Maritime History and Archaeology of Malta, Phd Texas University, ch 10, 153.
G Cassar, 2016, 'The Order of St John and corsairing activities in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries', Sacra Militia, 3, 28.
E Buttigieg, 2025, 'Of Battles and Escorts: The Hospitallers in the wider tapestry of the seventeenth century', The Military Orders, Volume VII, ch 6.]
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THE IMPRECISE BOUNDARY BETWEEN NAVY AND CORSAIR
In 1497 an experienced Venetian commander described Hospitaller Rhodes as the "protectress of corsairs". In the 1580s the Venetian Senate denounced Order of Malta as "corsairs parading crosses". Both insults carried weight. "Malta was a widely renowned base of corsairing operations in the Mediterranean, strategically convenient and highly efficient; its economy had long been geared to the corso and other related industries, including a prosperous slave market".
Piracy has been referred to as "that second form of war" ― another way of fighting the battle between Christianity and Islam. Barbary Coast corsairs were the most infamous but "piracy was by no means an exclusively Islamic pursuit ― some of the most able Mediterranean pirates were the Knights of Malta".
Barbara Fuchs addressed the dyad of 'lawless pirate' and 'licensed privateer' in an article at the turn of the millennium. She argues, "the trajectory from privateer to pirate is somewhat of a state fantasy in the first place ― the pirates are always already there, before the state uses them, and also once it no longer has any use for them". The flimsiness of the legal fig-leaf was exposed when "the continued depredations carried out by its formerly authorised agents became a source of acute embarrassment"; it was realised with "the difficulty of reigning in these unruly, often invisible, and apparently omnipresent figures".
After all, "if one attacked ships of a hostile nation for supposedly private purposes but with a mandate from one's government, one counted as a privateer (the English equivalent of the Romantic term 'corsair'), authorised and fully justified by the state and its pressing needs. Without such a mandate, one remained a pirate, even though the attacks carried out might be directed at the same ships, in the same manner, and with the same concrete results."
In the highly charged religious theatre of the Mediterranean, the commercial motives of piracy merged seamlessly with the professed aims of the Knights to defend the rights of Christendom wherever they met the Infidel. "The sinking of an enemy ship was not the primary objective of the galley at war". Certainly not in a war as it was fought by the corsair. The goal was to "make the largest number of prisoners, and therefore slaves", to board and seize the vessel itself as well as its cargo.
Amongst the leading corsairs of the period was Jean Parisot de La Valette, the future Grand Master. In the years 1554-1555 he was captain-general of the galley squadron, and in June 1555 he seized two vessels at Capo Misurata and another one in the vicinity of Malta, with a total of 250 slaves together with a considerable booty of artillery and victuals ...
The Knights' corsairing activity was equally carried out in the Levant, particularly in order to intercept the rich traffic proceeding from Alexandria and other parts of the Near East towards Constantinople. Pierre Rocquelaure de Saint Aubain and Marthurino de Lescaut, known as Romegas, were among those who distinguished themselves in such operations. De Sai8nt Aubain was a knight-corsair who in 1566 managed to capture a very precious cargo of spices and some 90 slaves from captured Turkish vessels.
Romegas had a series of victories starting in the late 1550s. In 1557 he captured, among others, two heavy Turkish merchant ships in the Levant. In 1561 Romegas managed to capture 300 slaves and several rich cargoes at the mouth of the Nile. In 1563, having set out with two galleys, he was seen sailing back to Capo Passero with over 500 slaves and, heaped on two ships, the cargoes of eight ships he had captured. In 1561 Romegas brought home three corchapins laden with oars, tow and munitions for Tripoli in Barbary, and a Turkish round ship which had left Tripoli for Constantinople with 113 black slaves ... In 1567 he cap[tured two Turkish brigantines at Favignana, and carried some 60 men to slavery from Zuaga ... But it was in the years following the Battle of Lepanto that Romegas, captain-general of the galley squadron between 1575 and 1577, set his mark on the history of Maltese corsairing. With his four galleys, and in close cooperation with three Tuscan galleys, he made several prizes in 1557 ...
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, several knights like Romegas and de Themericourt were among the most notorious corsairs, and even Grand Masters such as Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622) were licensed regularly to act as private corsairs.
It has been estimated "there were 387 corsairing enterprises based in Malta's harbour ... between 1585 and 1635", an average over this 50 year period of 7 or 8 each sailing season.
The records of Status Liberi provide the names of some of the individuals who armed a vessel for corsairing activity around this time. A portion of these were Knights of Malta using their own vessels or leasing them from others. The majority of their craft were smaller, faster galley designs, ideal for lightning raids on undefended coastal settlements, or overtaking the more cumbersome 'round ships' with their rich cargoes.
Domini Fra. Giovanni de Vintimiglia owned a number of vessels, ranging from galleots to tartana and urche, and operated between 1613 and 1621.
The Knight Battinera dominated the period 1619 to 1628 with his vascello and urca of armed soldiers and corsairs.
Signor Fra. Castelnovo was a Hospitaller and major operator in the Maltese corsairing scene between 1624 and 1628, and again in 1633.
The Knight Fra. Musu de Bencha is associated with a tartana in 1620 and a vascello between 1631 and 1631.
The Hospitaller Knight Rivelli is mentioned with his tartana in the seasons from 1634 to 1636.
The piracy of these un-knightly enterprises was apparently tolerated at the highest levels. Corsairs brought in booty, foodstuffs, munitions, and slaves, all of which produced useful income for the Order's Treasury. In 1605, Grand Master Wignacourt established the Tribunale degli Armamenti, "as a court to regulate corsairing so the Order could be sure of getting the profits. A licence had to be obtained and 10% of the profits returned to the Treasury. The licence recorded the condition of the ship and its armaments, and on its return the booty was shared with the ship's master, his crew and his creditors."
"Owing to the steady increase in the number of vessels operating from Malta, a constant stream of slave-captives flowed into the island, since prizes brought back very often included slaves who were normally sold by public auction. According to one historian, 'only Leghorn [English mispronunciation of 'Livorno', port of Tuscany and base of corsairing Knights of St Stephen], in the Christian Mediterranean, had a prize and slave market that could rival Malta's. These two countries were Christendom's Algiers with their bagnios ['commonly called the Bagno, or Sultan's palace, or Slave prison'], their slave markets and their sordid transactions.' The establishment of a prize market also served to ... place Malta at the forefront of human trafficking."
In a report of 1630, the pope was informed that the Order owned more than 3,000 'schievi infidel' (Muslim slaves), and that they used them for service on the galleys or for other needs (such as construction of fortifications).
[G Cassar, 2016, as above.
B Fuchs, 2000, 'Faithless Empires; Pirates, Renegadoes, and the English Nation', ELH, 67.1, 45-69.
J Abele & E Buttigieg, 2018, The Island Order State on Malta and its harbour c.1530-c.1624.
S Mercieca, 2002, The Spatial Mobility of Seafarers in the Mediterranean: A Case Study on Status Liberi Documentation (1581-1640), Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 12.2, 385-410.]
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