The Life of

Khaireddin Barbarossa

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha (Turkish: Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa or Hızır Hayreddin Paşa; also Hızır Reis before being promoted to the rank of Pasha and becoming the Kaptan-ı Derya (Fleet Admiral) of the Ottoman Navy) (c. 1478 – July 4, 1546), was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral who dominated the Mediterranean for decades. He was born on the island of Midilli (Lesbos in today's Greece) and died in Istanbul.

His original name was Yakupoğlu Hızır (Hızır son of Yakup). Hayreddin (Arabic: Khair ad-Din خير الدين, which literally means "Goodness of the Religion (of Islam)". This was an honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He became known as Barbarossa (Redbeard) in Europe, a name he inherited from his older brother Baba Oruç (Father Aruj) after Oruç was killed in a battle with the Spanish in Algeria. Coincidentally, this name sounded like "Barbarossa" (Redbeard) to the Europeans, and he did have a red beard.

Background

Hızır was one of four brothers who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos (Greek: Λέσβος) to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and his Greek wife, Katerina. According to Ottoman archives Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Yenice and later moved to the city of Vardar, near Thessaloniki. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause. He married a local Greek girl from Mytilene named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the sisters. At first Oruç helped with the boat, while Hızır helped with pottery.

Early Career

All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Hızır also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business.

Kaptan-ı Derya of the Ottoman Navy

In 1534 Barbarossa set sail from Istanbul with 80 galleys and in April he recaptured Coron, Patras and Lepanto from the Spaniards. In July 1534 he crossed the Strait of Messina and raided the Calabrian coasts, capturing a substantial number of ships around Reggio Calabria as well as the Castle of San Lucido. He later destroyed the port of Cetraro and the ships harbored there. Still in July 1534 he appeared in Campania and sacked the islands of Capri and Procida, before bombarding the ports in the Gulf of Naples. He then appeared in Lazio, shelled Gaeta and in August landed at Villa Santa Lucia, Sant'Isidoro, Sperlonga, Fondi, Terracina and Ostia on the River Tiber, causing the church bells in Rome to ring the alarm. He then sailed south, appearing at Ponza, Sicily and Sardinia, before capturing Tunis in August 1534 and sending the Hafsid Sultan Mulei Hassan fleeing. He also captured the strategic port of La Goulette.

Mulei Hassan asked Emperor Charles V for assistance to recover his kingdom, and a Spanish-Italian force of 300 galleys and 24,000 soldiers recaptured Tunis as well as Bone and Mahdiya in 1535. Recognizing the futility of armed resistance, Barbarossa had abandoned Tunis well before the arrival of the invaders, sailing away into the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he bombarded ports, landed once again at Capri and reconstructed a fort (which still today carries his name) after largely destroying it during the siege of the island. He then sailed to Algiers, from where he raided the coastal towns of Spain, destroyed the ports of Majorca and Minorca, captured several Spanish and Genoese galleys and liberated their Muslim oar slaves. In September 1535 he repulsed another Spanish attack on Tlemcen.

In 1536 Barbarossa was called back to Istanbul to take command of the naval attack on the Habsburg Kingdom of Naples. In July 1537 he landed at Otranto and captured the city, as well as the Fortress of Castro and the city of Ugento in Puglia.

In August 1537, Lütfi Pasha and Barbarossa led a huge Ottoman force which captured the Aegean and Ionian islands belonging to the Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos and Naxos. In the same year Barbarossa captured Corfu from Venice and once again raided Calabria. These losses caused Venice to ask Pope Paul III to organize a "Holy League" against the Ottomans.

In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League (comprising the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights) against the Ottomans, but Barbarossa defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538.

Sultan Suleiman and Barbarossa

In the summer of 1539 Barbarossa captured the islands of Skiathos, Skyros, Andros and Serifos and recaptured Castelnuovo from the Venetians, who had taken it from the Ottomans after the battle of Preveza. He also captured the nearby Castle of Risan and later assaulted the Venetian fortress of Cattaro and the Spanish fortress of Santa Veneranda near Pesaro. Barbarossa later took the remaining Christian outposts in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Venice finally signed a peace treaty with Sultan Suleiman in October 1540, agreeing to recognize the Turkish territorial gains and to pay 300,000 gold ducats.

In September 1540, Emperor Charles V contacted Barbarossa and offered him to become his Admiral-in-Chief as well as the ruler of Spain's territories in North Africa, but he refused. Unable to persuade Barbarossa to switch sides, in October 1541, Charles himself laid siege to Algiers, seeking to end the corsair threat to the Spanish domains and Christian shipping in the western Mediterranean. The season was not ideal for such a campaign, and both Andrea Doria, who commanded the fleet, and the old Hernan Cortés, who had been asked by Charles to participate in the campaign, attempted to change the Emperor's mind but failed. Eventually a violent storm disrupted Charles' landing operations. Andrea Doria took his fleet away into open waters to avoid being wrecked on the shore, but much of the Spanish fleet went aground. After some indecisive fighting on land, Charles had to abandon the effort and withdraw his severely battered force.

In 1543 Barbarossa headed towards Marseilles to assist France, then an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and cruised the western Mediterranean with a fleet of 210 ships (70 galleys, 40 galliots and 100 other warships carrying 14,000 Turkish soldiers, thus an overall total of 30,000 Ottoman troops.) On his way, while passing through the Strait of Messina, he asked Diego Gaetani, the governor of Reggio Calabria, to surrender his city. Gaetani responded with cannon fire, which killed three Turkish sailors. Barbarossa, angered by the response, besieged and captured the city. He then landed on the coasts of Campania and Lazio, and from the mouth of the Tiber threatened Rome, but France intervened in favor of the Pope's city. Barbarossa then raided several Italian and Spanish islands and coastal settlements before laying siege to Nice and capturing the city on 5 August 1543 on behalf of the French king Francois I. The Turkish captain later landed at Antibes and the Île Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes, before sacking the city of San Remo, other ports of Liguria, Monaco and La Turbie. He spent the winter with his fleet and 30,000 Turkish soldiers in Toulon, but occasionally sent his ships from there to bombard the coasts of Spain. The Christian population had been evacuated and the Cathedral of St. Mary in Toulon was transformed into a mosque for the Turkish soldiers, while Ottoman money was accepted for transactions by the French salesmen in the city.

In the spring of 1544, after assaulting San Remo for the second time and landing at Borghetto Santo Spirito and Ceriale, Barbarossa defeated another Spanish-Italian fleet and raided deeply into the Kingdom of Naples. He then sailed to Genoa with his 210 ships and threatened to attack the city unless it freed Turgut Reis, who had been serving as a galley slave on a Genoese ship and then imprisoned in the city since his capture in Corsica by Giannettino Doria in 1540. Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue at his palace in the Fassolo district of Genoa, and the two admirals negotiated the release of Turgut Reis in exchange for 3,500 gold ducats. Barbarossa then successfully repulsed further Spanish attacks on southern France, but was recalled to Istanbul after Charles V and Suleiman had agreed to a truce in 1544.

After leaving the Provence from the port of Île Sainte-Marguerite in May 1544, Barbarossa assaulted San Remo for the third time, and when he appeared before Vado Ligure, the Republic of Genoa sent him a substantial sum to save other Genoese cities from further attacks. In June 1544 Barbarossa appeared before Elba. Threatening to bombard Piombino unless the city released the son of Sinan Reis who had been captured 10 years earlier by the Spaniards in Tunis, he obtained his release. He then captured Castiglione della Pescaia, Talamone and Orbetello in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. There he destroyed the tomb and burned the remains of Bartolomeo Peretti, who had burned his father's house in Mytilene-Lesbos the previous year, in 1543. He then captured Montiano and occupied Porto Ercole and the Isle of Giglio. He later assaulted Civitavecchia, but Leone Strozzi, the French envoy, convinced Barbarossa to lift the siege.

The Turkish fleet then assaulted the coasts of Sardinia before appearing at Ischia and landing there in July 1544, capturing the city as well as Forio and the Isle of Procida before threatening Pozzuoli. Encountering 30 galleys under Giannettino Doria, Barbarossa forced them to sail away towards Sicily and seek refuge in Messina. Due to strong winds the Turks were unable to attack Salerno but managed to land at Cape Palinuro nearby. Barbarossa then entered the Strait of Messina and landed at Catona, Fiumara and Calanna near Reggio Calabria and later at Cariati and at Lipari, which was his final landing on the Italian peninsula. There he bombarded the citadel for 15 days after the city refused to surrender, and eventually captured it.

He finally returned to Istanbul, and in 1545 left the city for his final naval expeditions, during which he bombarded the ports of the Spanish mainland and landed at Majorca and Minorca for the last time. He then sailed back to Istanbul and built a palace on the Bosphorus, in the present-day district of Büyükdere.

The Navy Flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa

The navy flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa may be confused with the Star of David, a Jewish symbol, used by Israel today. However, the flag is not a Jewish symbol. In medieval times, this star was an Islamic symbol known as the Seal of Solomon (Suleiman) and was extremely popular amongst the Turkish Beyliks of Anatolia. The seal was also used by Ottomans in their mosque decorations, coins and personal flags of pashas, including Hayreddin Barbarossa.[1] Another state known to use the seal on their flag was the Candaroğlu. According to the A. Cresques' Catalan Atlas of 1375, flag of Karamanoğlu consists of a blue 6-edged star[2].

Retirement and Death

Barbarossa retired in Istanbul in 1545, leaving his son Hasan Pasha as his successor in Algiers. He then dictated his memoirs to Muradi Sinan Reis. They consist of five hand-written volumes known as "Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa" (Memories of Hayreddin Pasha). Today they are exhibited at the Topkapı Palace and Istanbul University Library. They are prepared and published by BKY-Babıali Kültür Yayıncılığı as "Kaptan Paşa'nın Seyir Defteri" (The Logbook of the Captain Pasha) by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şimşirgil, a Turkish academic. They are also fictionalised as "Akdeniz Bizimdi" (The Mediterranean was Ours) by M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ.

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha died in 1546 in his seaside palace in the Büyükdere neighbourhood of Istanbul, on the northwestern shores of the Bosphorus. He is buried in the tall mausoleum (türbe) near the ferry port of the district of Beşiktaş on the European side of Istanbul; which was built in 1541 by the famous architect Sinan, at the site where his fleet used to assemble. His memorial was built in 1944, next to his mausoleum.

Legacy

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha established Turkish supremacy in the Mediterranean which lasted until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. But even after their defeat in Lepanto, the Ottoman Turks quickly rebuilt their fleet, regained Cyprus and other lost territories in Morea and Dalmatia from the Republic of Venice between 1571 and 1572, and conquered Tunisia from Spain in 1574. Furthermore, the Turks ventured into the northern Atlantic Ocean between 1585 and 1660, and continued to be a major Mediterranean sea power for three more centuries, until the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, when the Ottoman fleet, which had 21 battleships and 173 other types of warships, ranked as the third largest naval force in the world after the British and French navies (see the main article History of the Turkish Navy).

However, during these centuries of great seamen such as Kemal Reis before him; his brother Oruç Reis and other contemporaries Turgut Reis, Salih Reis, Piri Reis and Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis; or Piyale Pasha, Murat Reis, Seydi Ali Reis, Uluç Ali Reis and Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis after him, few other Turkish admirals ever achieved the overwhelming naval power of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa.

His mausoleum is in the Barbaros Park of Beşiktaş, Istanbul, where his statue also stands, right next to the Turkish Naval Museum. On the back of the statue are verses by the Turkish poet Yahya Kemal Beyatlı which may be translated as follows:

Whence on the sea's horizon comes that roar?
Can it be Barbarossa now returning
From Tunis or Algiers or from the Isles?
Two hundred vessels ride upon the waves,
Coming from lands the rising Crescent lights:
O blessed ships, from what seas are ye come?

Barbaros Boulevard starts from his mausoleum on the Bosphorus and runs all the way up to the Levent and Maslak business districts and beyond.

In the centuries following his death, even today, Turkish seamen salute his mausoleum with a cannon shot before leaving for naval operations and battles.

Several warships of the Turkish Navy and passenger ships have been named after him.

History of the Ottoman Navy

The Turkish Navy was once the largest sea power in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean; entering the history books of many countries in distant lands such as the British Isles, Scandinavia, Iceland, Labrador, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Newfoundland and Virginia in the west, to India, Indonesia and Malaysia in the east, and Madagascar in the south.

The Turkish Navy is a part of the historic consciousness of many nations such as the French, Algerians, Tunisians and Libyans as "allies", or the Maltese, Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards as "rivals" (even Miguel de Cervantes joined the Holy League to fight the Turks at the Third Battle of Lepanto in 1571.) Images and frescoes of the Turkish Navy are depicted on the walls of many famous palaces throughout Europe, such as the Pitti Palace in Florence and the Doge's Palace in Venice.

Famous Turkish admirals like Kemal Reis (who twice defeated the Venetian fleet at the First Battle of Lepanto in 1499 and the Second Battle of Lepanto in 1500); Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa (known as Barbarossa (Redbeard) in the West) who defeated the Holy League of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria at the Island of Peñón in 1531, Battle of Preveza in 1538 and Algiers in 1541; Turgut Reis (known as Dragut in the West) who conquered Libya in 1551 and defeated the fleet of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria at the Battle of Ponza in 1552; Piyale Paşa who defeated the Holy League of Philip II under the command of Giovanni Andrea Doria at the Battle of Djerba in 1560; Oruç Reis who established the Turkish presence in North Africa which lasted 4 centuries; Salih Reis who conquered Morocco in 1553 and extended Ottoman territory into the Atlantic Ocean; Uluç (Kılıç) Ali Reis who restored the Turkish domination of the Mediterranean after Lepanto in 1571 and conquered Tunisia from Spain in 1574; Murat Reis who fought the Portuguese at the Indian Ocean between 1552 and 1554 and captured Lanzarote of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean in 1585; Seydi Ali Reis (known as Sidi Ali Reis in the West) who fought the Portuguese at the Indian Ocean in 1554 and is famous for his books of travel which are translated into many languages; Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis (known as Curtogoli in the West) who played an important role in the conquests of Egypt in 1517 and Rhodes in 1522, and established the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet based in Suez which was later commanded by his son, Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis, who lead the Turkish naval expedition to Aceh (1568–1569) which marked the easternmost territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and countless others have all made it to the hall of fame of great mariners in history.

The famous Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis crafted amazing maps and books of navigation, including his first world map in 1513 which is one of the oldest surviving maps of America and possibly the oldest surviving map of Antarctica, despite being drawn more than 3 centuries before the official discovery of that continent. The first world map (1513) and second world map (1528) of Piri Reis are today preserved in the Library of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. Other works of Piri Reis are preserved in the Turkish Naval Museum in Istanbul.

The 19th century saw further decline in Ottoman naval power, despite occasional recovery. Following the defeat against the combined British-French-Russian fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827, Sultan Mahmud II gave priority to develop a strong and modern Ottoman naval force. The first steam ships of the Ottoman Navy were acquired in 1828. In 1829 the world's largest warship for many years, the 62×17×7m ship-of-the-line Mahmudiye, which had 128 cannons on 3 decks, was built for the Ottoman Navy at the Imperial Naval Arsenal on the Golden Horn in Istanbul.

The first Anatolian Turkish naval fleet, which consisted of 33 sail ships and 17 oar ships, was established at the port of İzmir by Çaka Bey in 1081, following his conquest of Smyrna (İzmir), Urla, Çeşme, Phocaea (Foça) and Sığacık on the Aegean coast of Anatolia in that same year. Çaka Bey's fleet conquered Lesbos (1089) and Chios (1090), before defeating the Byzantine fleet near the Koyun Islands off Chios on May 19, 1090, which marked the first major Anatolian Seljuk naval victory in a sea war. In 1091 Emir Çaka Bey's fleet conquered the islands of Samos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. In 1095 Çaka Bey's fleet conquered the strategic port city and Gulf of Adramyttium (Edremit) on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and the city of Abydos on the Dardanelles Strait.

Anatolian Seljuk emperor Alaeddin Keykubad I conquered Alanya and established a Turkish naval arsenal there. Alanya became the homeport of the Turkish Mediterranean fleet. Alaeddin Keykubad I later established a Turkish Black Sea fleet based in Sinop, which, under the command of Emir Çoban, conquered parts of the Crimean peninsula and Sugdak on the Sea of Azov (1220–1237).

The Ottomans began to develop a navy in the early 14th century, and the conquest of İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara in 1308 marked the first Ottoman naval victory. In 1321 the Ottoman fleet made its first landings on Thrace in southeastern Europe. In 1351 the Ottoman naval forces built the first Turkish castles in Europe, and in 1352 the Anatolian shores of the strategic Bosporus Strait near Constantinople (Istanbul), and both shores of the equally strategic Dardanelles Strait were conquered by the Ottoman fleet. In 1373 the first landings and conquests on the Aegean shores of Macedonia were made, which was followed by the first Ottoman siege of Thessaloniki in 1374. The conquest of Thessaloniki and Macedonia were completed in 1387. Between 1387 and 1423 the Ottoman fleet contributed to the territorial expansions of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan peninsula and the Black Sea coasts of Anatolia. Following the first conquests of Venetian territories in Morea, the first Ottoman-Venetian War (1423–1430) started. In the meantime, the Ottoman fleet continued to contribute to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Aegean and Black Seas, with the conquests of Sinop (1424), Izmir (1426) and the reconquest of Thessaloniki from the Venetians (1430). Albania was reconquered by the Ottoman fleet with landings between 1448 and 1450. In 1453 the Ottoman fleet participated in the historic conquests of Constantinople (Istanbul), Gökçeada, Lemnos and Thasos. The conquest of the Duchy of Athens in Morea was completed between 1458 and 1460, followed by the conquest of the Empire of Trebizond and the Genoese colony of Amasra in 1461, which brought an end to the final vestiges of the Byzantine Empire.

In 1462 the Ottoman fleet conquered the Genoese islands of the northern Aegean Sea, including Lesbos. This was followed by the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1463–1479. In the following period the Ottoman fleet gained more territory in the Aegean Sea, and in 1475 set foot on Crimea on the northern shores of the Black Sea. Until 1499 this was followed by further expansion on the Black Sea coasts (such as the conquest of Georgia in 1479) and on the Balkan peninsula (such as the final reconquest of Albania in 1497, and the conquest of Montenegro in 1499). The loss of Venetian forts in Montenegro, near the strategic Castelnuovo, triggered the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503, during which the Turkish fleet of Kemal Reis defeated the Venetian forces at the Battle of Zonchio (1499) and the Battle of Modon (1500). 

By 1503 the Ottoman fleet raided the northeastern Adriatic coasts of Italy, and completely captured the Venetian lands on Morea, the Ionian Sea coast and the southeastern Adriatic Sea coast. Starting from the conquest of Syria in 1516, the Ottoman fleet of Selim I began expanding the Ottoman territories towards the Levant and the Mediterranean coasts of North Africa. Between 1516 and 1517, Algeria was conquered from Spain by the forces of Oruç Reis who declared his allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, which was followed by the conquest of Egypt and the end of the Mameluke Empire in 1517. In 1522 the strategic island of Rhodes, then the seat of the Knights of St. John, was conquered by the naval fleet of Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis; while Suleiman I let the Knights leave the island, who relocated their base first to Sicily and later to Malta. In 1527 the Ottoman fleet participated in the conquest of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Bosnia. In 1529 the Ottoman fleet under Salih Reis and Aydın Reis destroyed the Spanish fleet under the command of Rodrigo Portundo near the Isle of Formentera. This was followed by the first conquest of Tunisia from Spain and the reconquest of Morea from Venice by the fleet of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, which later conquered the islands belonging to the Duchy of Naxos in 1537.

Afterwards, the Ottoman fleet laid siege on the Venetian island of Corfu, and landed on the coasts of Calabria and Puglia, which forced the Republic of Venice and Habsburg Spain of Charles V to ask for the Pope to create a Holy League; which was comprised of Spain, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, the Papal States and the Knights of Malta. The joint fleet was to be commanded by Charles V's top admiral, Andrea Doria. The Holy League and the Ottoman fleet under the command of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa encountered each other in September 1538 at the Battle of Preveza, which is generally considered the greatest Turkish naval victory in history. In 1541, 1544, 1552 and 1555 the Spanish-Italian fleet of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria were defeated in Algiers, Naples, Ponza and Piombino, respectively. In the meantime, the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet, based in Suez and Basra, defeated the Portuguese forces on several occasions near the Arabian peninsula, conquering Aden and Yemen (1538–1539) which were important Portuguese ports, along with Jeddah and Hijaz on the Red Sea coast. Between 1547 and 1548, Yemen was reconquered from the Portuguese, while in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, other important Portuguese ports such as Oman, Hormuz and Qatar were conquered in 1552.

The Ottoman naval victory at the Battle of Preveza in 1538 and the Battle of Djerba in 1560 ensured them supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea for several decades, until the Ottomans suffered their first ever military defeat against the Europeans at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). But the defeat at Lepanto, despite being much celebrated in Europe, was only a temporary setback, as the Ottomans built an equally large fleet within a year and took back Cyprus from the Republic of Venice in 1572 (having originally conquered the island between 1570 and 1571) and Tunisia from Spain in 1574, which completed the Ottoman conquest of North Africa; as the Ottoman fleet under Turgut Reis had earlier conquered Libya in 1551, while that of Salih Reis had conquered the coasts of Morocco beyond the Strait of Gibraltar in 1553. In 1565 the Sultanate of Aceh in Sumatra (Indonesia) declared allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, and in 1569 the Ottoman fleet of Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis set foot on Aceh, which marked the easternmost Ottoman territorial expansion.

Starting from the early 17th century, the Ottoman fleet began to venture into the Atlantic Ocean (earlier, Kemal Reis had sailed to the Canary Islands in 1501, while the fleet of Murat Reis the Elder had captured Lanzarote of the Canary Islands in 1585). In 1617 the Ottoman fleet captured Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, before raiding Sussex, Plymouth, Devon, Hartland Point, Cornwall and the other counties of western England in August 1625. In 1627 Ottoman naval ships, accompanied by corsairs from the Barbary Coast, raided the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Between 1627 and 1631 the same Ottoman force also raided the coasts of Ireland and Sweden. In 1655 a force of 40 Ottoman ships captured the Isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel, which served as the main base for Ottoman naval and privateering operations in the North Atlantic until 1660, when Ottoman ships appeared off the eastern coasts of North America, particularly being sighted at the British colonies like Newfoundland and Virginia.

In the rest of the 17th and 18th centuries, however, the operations of the Ottoman fleet were largely limited to the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. The long lasting Ottoman-Venetian War of 1648–1669 ended with Ottoman victory and the completion of the conquest of Crete. In 1708 another long lasting objective, the conquest of Oran (the final Spanish stronghold in Algeria) was accomplished. The 18th century was a period of stalemate for the Ottoman fleet, with numerous victories matched by equally numerous defeats. The important Ottoman naval victories in this period included the reconquest of Moldavia and Azov from the Russians in 1711; the reconquest of Morea from the Venetians between 1714 and 1715; the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1715 and the reconquest of Souda in Crete and the Cyclades; the Ottoman-Russian War (1738); the reconquest of Morea and Lemnos (1770) from Venice; and the defeat of the Russian fleet near Yılan Island (1787). Major defeats of the Ottoman fleet in the 18th century, on the other hand, included the Battle of Chesme (1770).

In 1875, during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, the Ottoman Navy had 21 battleships and 173 other types of warships, ranking as the third largest navy in the world after the British and French navies. But the vast size of the navy was too much of a burden for the collapsing Ottoman economy to sustain. Abdülhamid II's suspicion of the reformist admirals, who supported Midhat Pasha, made things even worse, and consequently almost the entire Ottoman fleet was kept locked inside the Golden Horn for more than 3 decades, during which the ships decayed. Even the two Nordenfelt class submarines acquired by Abdülhamid II himself, Abdülhamid (1886) and Abdülmecid (1887), could seldom leave the Golden Horn due to the sultan's suspicions and distrust for a Navy-based coup against him; which eventually started to take place at the port of Selanik in around 1908.

Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress which effectively took control of the country sought to develop a strong Ottoman naval force. The poor condition of the fleet during the Ottoman Naval Parade of 1910 saddened every Turk who saw it, and the Ottoman Navy Foundation was established in order to purchase new ships through public donations. Those who made donations received different types of medals according to the size of their contributions.

With this public money, the Ottoman government ordered large battleships like Sultan Osman I and Reşadiye, but despite the payment for both ships, the United Kingdom confiscated them at the outbreak of World War I and renamed them as HMS Agincourt and HMS Erin. This caused some ill-feeling towards Britain among the Ottoman public, and the German Empire took advantage of the situation by sending the battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim and light cruiser Midilli which entered service in the Ottoman fleet. This event significantly contributed to the decision of supporting Germany in the First World War, with whom the Ottomans sided.

The British, French and ANZAC fleets could not pass through the Dardanelles Strait (Çanakkale Boğazı) during the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 thanks to the heavy Turkish fortifications lining the strait and mining by Turkish minelayers like Nusret, and fierce fighting by the Turkish forces on land, sea and air, who were well aware that they were resisting the capture of Istanbul and the occupation of their homeland.

Following the end of World War I, the Ottoman Navy was dissolved by the victorious Allies and the large ships of the Ottoman fleet were towed to the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara under the control of Allied warships, or locked inside the Golden Horn. Some of them were scrapped. After the independence of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the remaining major warships of the former Ottoman fleet, such as the battlecruiser TCG Yavuz, cruisers TCG Hamidiye, TCG Mecidiye, TCG Turgut Reis, TCG Berk-i Satvet and TCG Peyk-i Şevket, destroyers TCG Samsun, TCG Bafra and TCG Taşoz, and torpedo boats TCG Burak Reis, TCG Kemal Reis, TCG İsa Reis and TCG Sakız were repaired and modernized, while new ships and submarines were acquired.

Major Victories, 

Conquests and Territorial Acquisitions

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http://www.canakkale.gen.tr (Gallipoli Wars)

http://www.theottomans.org (Discover Ottoman)

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