Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  Thus ended the 300 year rule of the Barbary corsairs. It was a time of piracy and commerce, based on the capture and sale of slaves, ships and cargo. More accurately, one could call the system used by both North Africa and Malta as commercial raiding, half way between privateering and piracy. One other story connected to the Barbary corsairs is of unusual interest, and that is the tale of captured Christian sailors and slaves who decided to ‘take the turban’ and become Muslim. These renegades were caught between two worlds and lived dangerous lives, suspected by both Muslim and Christian.

  The Renegades

  Over the course of some three centuries, from 1530 to 1780, a large number of European Christians were captured by the North African corsairs and became slaves. Their outlook was generally bleak, as has been described, but besides redemption or escape, there was one other option that could improve their lives, and this was to ‘take the turban’ and ‘turn Turk’, in other words, to become a Muslim and a renegade. Many renegades did well in business in North Africa, social mobility was very possible, and maritime expertise was particularly useful. Indeed, one Christian sailor, Edward Coxere declared that he found life better in a Tunis prison than back home in Yarmouth, England! As a result, conversion was quite a common procedure, and while the percentage of Christian converts to Islam varied according to location and time period, there seemed to be a fairly consistent rate of around twenty to thirty per cent, although one French source claimed that Provencals would put on a turban as easily as they would put on a night cap. According to the historian Linda Colley in her book on captives, of ninety-six crew saved from an English wreck in 1746, and sent to the sultan of Morocco as slaves, twenty-one had turned Muslim by 1751, for a conversion rate of 21.875 per cent. The historian Christopher Lloyd, in his book on English corsairs, stated that of 459 French captives in seventeenth-century North Africa, 149 ‘turned Turk’ for a conversion percentage of 32.5 per cent. The redemptive orders also estimated that in Algiers between 1621 and 1627 there were the following renegades by country of origin: 857 Germans (138 from Hamburg), 300 English, 130 Dutch, 160 Danes, and 250 Poles, Hungarians and Muscovites.31

  Renegades were a varied group – William Lithgow in his seventeenth century memoirs reported that Sir Francis Verney turned Turk in Tunis after running out of money. He spent two years as a galley slave but was redeemed by an English Jesuit. He became a common soldier, but still died in poverty in Messina. Others took the turban with the idea of improving their prospects – this was especially the case with unemployed European sailors after major wars ended. One unusual English renegade was John Ward (1553–1623), a pirate who turned Turk in 1615 and lived in Tunis. According to Lithgow, Ward had been a fisherman and a petty officer in the Royal Navy, but now Ward lived in Tunis in a palace of alabaster and marble with fifteen domestics, who were all renegades, all circumcised, but ‘desperate and disdainful’ wrote Lithgow. Ward was valuable to Tunis as a naval captain, ready with his squadron of ships to capture prizes, especially Venetian ships. Ward is alleged to have uttered these inflammatory words to the captain of King James’ ship, the Rainbow, in the very early 1600s:

  Go home, go home, says Captain Ward

  And tell your king from me,

  If he reigns king on all the land

  Ward will reign king on the sea.32

  Ward was a simple sailor, who struck it lucky with a number of rich prizes in 1605 and 1606, so that in 1606 he was able to make a deal to serve the Dey of Tunis. A visiting English sailor met Ward in 1608 and described him in less than flattering terms:

  Very short with little hair, and that quite white, bald in front; swarthy face and beard. Speaks little, and almost always swearing. Drunk from morn till night. Most prodigal and plucky. Sleeps a great deal, and often onboard when in port. The habits of a thorough ‘Salt.’ A fool and an idiot out of his trade.33

  This is actually a useful portrait of a fairly typical renegade. Like Ward, and increasingly from the 1500s, Christian sailors and sea captains, who were well versed in the arts of navigation and knew the Christian coasts, were persuaded to become renegades. So, for example, on a Mediterranean raid organised by an Albanian renegade in 1578, seven of his eight galliot captains were renegades, including one from France, one from Venice, one from Naples, and three from Greece. Similarly, Father Dan, a priest dedicated to redeeming Christian slaves in North Africa, wrote in the mid seventeenth century that of thirty-five Algerian galley captains, twelve were Turks, one a Jew and one a Hungarian, and the remainder were all renegades, from Venice, Greece and Spain.

  One celebrated naval renegade was Ochiali, or Uluc Ali, or Euldj’Ali. His original name was Giovanni Galena, and he came from Licastelli in Calabria. He was the son of a simple fisherman, but was captured in 1536 by another famous renegade, Kheir ed-Din, admiral of the Ottoman navy and ruler of Algiers. Giovanni was sold in the market of Istanbul and became a galley slave, reportedly rowing the lead starboard bow oar. He suffered from ring worm, which led to his nickname as ‘the bald’. Insulted by another rower, he converted to Islam in order to revenge himself on the man, although another story has him converting in order to marry the daughter of the owner. Giovanni took the turban and was renamed either Ochiali or Uluc Ali, or Euldj’Ali, and soon rose in the ranks and displayed his ability as a naval captain. He raided Sardinia in 1554, took part in the defeat of a Spanish fleet at Djerba in 1560, fought at the siege of Malta in 1565, became pasha of Algiers in 1568, and commanded the Ottoman left wing at the celebrated battle of Lepanto in 1571. His squadron of ninety-five ships performed better than any other Ottoman command in the battle, and he was subsequently made commander of the Ottoman navy. Earlier, Charles V offered him the title of Marquis of Calabria in 1569, his birth place, but he refused, though later, in 1572, he asked to be made a prince of Calabria. One story has him anchored off Licastelli in 1562, intent on seeing his mother again, but she reportedly rejected the chance of meeting up with her turncoat son. More reliably, he is said to have raided Licastelli with the idea of punishing those provincial nobles who had made his life a misery as a youngster, and rewarding those inhabitants who would renounce Christianity and join him in Algiers. As it was, Ochiali was supposed to have had 500 ‘renegades’ in his household – these being young children kidnapped from the Balkan countries and enslaved.34

  Ochiali’s life was unusual in that he rose to very high rank among the Barbary corsairs, but was typical of many who chose to become renegades primarily in order to improve their lives. Others were not so lucky – a Corsican renegade called Hassan Corso (the name signifies he was a corsair), attempted to become the ruler of Algiers in 1556, at the urging of the local Janissary force. However, Corso was seized by the nominee of the Sultan, one Mohamed Tekelerli, and the renegade was put to death in a very unpleasant manner:

  After having stabbed sharp reeds into his fingers and toes they placed a red-hot iron crown upon his head. Then they impaled him alive on a sharpened stake by the Bab Azoun gate where he remained in public view, suffering the most dire agonies for more than half the day. He gave out the most terrible screams before dying of this torment.

  Soon after, another renegade from Calabria, and a supporter of Corso, rallied some supporters, killed Tekelerli, and assumed control over Algiers before dying of the plague after just seven days.35

  For the most part renegades did better themselves, especially in the naval area where maritime skills were much in demand. Renegades also often did very well in business, and there were few forced conversions from Christian to Muslim, although those renegades who made it back to their home countries somewhat naturally tried to emphasise the tortures that compelled them to take the turban. One such account came from the previously mentioned Thomas Pellow who in the early eighteenth century was taken by corsairs and made a slave in the house of one of the sons of the sultan of Morocco. Pellow described unpleasant tortures to make him convert, though it should be stressed that this account is very likely exaggerated, and
may not have actually taken place. According to Pellow, his owner, Moulay es-Safa, beat him severely and burned the flesh off his bones ‘which the tyrant did, by frequent repetitions, after a most cruel manner’. After much similar treatment, Pellow wrote that he was at last constrained to submit, ‘calling upon God to forgive me, who knows that I never gave up the consent of my heart’. The method by which a Christian would signal that he was ready to turn Turk was a very simple one, merely raising the forefinger to the sky and uttering a few words of conversion. And this Pellow did.36

  Other renegades told similar stories, for example, the narrative of Joseph Pitts, published in 1704. Pitts was the slave of two brothers in Algiers, who, according to Pitts, forced him into taking the turban. Pitts’ account stresses the tortures he went through before agreeing to turn Turk. After lengthy verbal entreaties did not work with Pitts, his patron, the elder brother, went into a frenzy, had Pitts hung upside down and began to beat him on his feet, ‘He being a very strong man and full of passion, his blows fell heavy indeed … I roared out to feel the pain of his cruel strokes, but the more I cried, the more furiously he laid on upon me, and to stop the noise of my crying he would stamp with his feet on my mouth …’. Two or three times Pitts asked him to stop and considered turning Muslim, but he held out, and finally ‘seeing his cruelty towards me insatiable unless I did turn Mohammetan, through terror I did it and spake the words as usual, holding up the forefinger of my right hand …’. The words that Pitts spoke to accompany the raised forefinger were the usual formula for turning Muslim and were, ‘la illahi ill allah Mahommet resullallah’. Then the next step was circumcision, normally carried out at a surgeon’s house, and then the red cap of slavery was replaced by the turban and the woolen djellaba.37

  Pitts went on to give an elaborate account of what happened when a Christian voluntarily turned Turk. The apostate goes to the local dey (ruler) and his divan (council), and declares his willingness to become Muslim. He is immediately accepted, with no explanation necessary, placed on a horse with fine trappings, and paraded around the town. He is well dressed and carries an arrow, holding it straight up with his forefinger as he rides, with some twenty or thirty stewards riding beside him with drawn swords, signifying that if he changes his mind and repents he will be cut to pieces. There is music and drumming, and some of the crowd will give coins to encourage the convert. As soon as the ceremony is over, wrote Pitts, the renegade is enrolled in the pay of the local garrison and lives with the fellow soldiers. Finally, the circumciser comes and performs the ceremony of circumcision. The convert is now a fully fledged Muslim.38

  A somewhat different perspective on the business of turning Turk comes from Thomas Baker, the English consul in Tripoli from 1677 to 1685. Baker’s journal reveals his efforts to stop Christians turning Turk in Tripoli, for example a sailor in January 1680 wanted to turn Turk, but Baker was able to prevent this and put the sailor back on his ship, the Francis. At another point in November 1680, two sailors had turned Turk but now regretted this move, and Baker was able to write two letters of safe passage for them. In May 1681 Baker reported the story of three Christians – a French naval captain, his purser, and a Venetian gardener – who were surprised at an assignation outside Tripoli with women of the town. The Venetian gardener immediately turned Turk to escape punishment, while the women were set to ride through town on asses, facing backwards. The two Frenchmen paid $850 and were well beaten for their crime. Nevertheless, the renegade situation that seemed to preoccupy Baker the most, along with most Christian commentators, was the risk of young Christian boys turning Turk, with the presumption that they would be sodomised. In September 1680 Baker complained that three English boys had turned Turk, and that there were 300 such boys in Algiers. Baker continued to report stories of sodomy, for example in October 1680 when a Turk received 300 blows, not for sodomy with a boy, but for throwing the boy over the town wall and breaking both his legs. Then in June 1682 Baker was astonished that the son of a Dutch renegade was buggered by two Turks and this example was followed by thirty-four soldiers, with allegedly no shame or punishment for the transgressors!39

  It is difficult to tell how widespread the practice of encouraging youth to take the turban for the purpose of sodomy was, but certainly a homosexual culture was well established and accepted in North Africa. A typical Christian cleric, assuming the worst, wrote in 1647 that young slaves were purchased ‘at great price by the Turks to serve them in their abominable sins, and no sooner do they have them in their power, by dressing them up and caressing them, [then] they persuade them to make themselves Turks’. If this did not work, force was then used. And according to one report, the famous Albanian renegade and eventual naval captain of the sea, Murat Rais (1534–1638), was captured as a youth at the age of twelve and given command of his first ship when he was still only twelve or thirteen by an infatuated corsair captain.40

  The position of the renegade was a difficult one, caught between two cultures and two faiths, usually a willing convert, sometimes an unwilling convert. In the maritime area, renegades were essential to the Barbary corsairs as captains, navigators, shipwrights, artillery specialists, and possessing a good knowledge of Christian coasts and ports. It is especially in the naval area that many reached very high rank. Renegades would sometimes regret their choice, and try to buy a pardon back home, as John Ward attempted unsuccessfully in 1608. And others, like Thomas Pellow, did eventually escape and make it back to England, where he tried to justify his conversion and actions. But some renegades must have tried unsuccessfully to escape, as Thomas Baker noted in May 1681 when he reported that four renegades and two Christians ran away in a fishing boat from Tripoli, having looted the treasury for good measure. On recapture the two Christians were pardoned, being slaves, but two of the renegades were hung by their feet and then by the neck, while one drowned. Baker does not report the fate of the fourth renegade.41

  Ultimately, the stories of the renegades are too diverse to summarise. They include simple opportunism, as in the case of Peter Lyle or Lisle, the Scots mate of the Hampden, who was caught stealing on his ship, and elected to escape punishment by turning Turk. Lisle was renamed Murat Rais, one of several of that name, and later became admiral of the Tripoli fleet from 1796 to 1815. Other renegades such as Ochiali seemed to have a deeper commitment. But at the least one must sympathise with their conflicted lives, belonging to neither world, and often subject to deep remorse for their decisions.42

  9

  Pirates of the Eastern Seas

  Pirates of the Eastern Seas differed in one important respect from Western pirates – the former tended to see piracy as a way of life, while Western pirates usually saw piracy as a temporary job. Another difference was that Asian pirates had been operational for a very long time, while Atlantic and Caribbean pirates were a more recent innovation, though Ancient and Classical pirates had flourished in earlier times.

  Chinese Piracy from Ming to Manchu

  In more modern times, the threat of piracy on the coasts of China came to a head in the sixteenth century, during the period of the imperial Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644). At this time, foreign trade was prohibited, which led to smuggling, and only encouraged piracy. These smugglers turned pirates on the coasts of China were initially not actually Chinese but were often Japanese, and were known as the ‘wo-k’uo’, meaning simply Japanese bandits or pirates. It is reported that these Japanese pirates operated in large junk fleets, wore uniforms of red coats and yellow hats, and wielded a sword in each hand, which outmatched the Ming defenders. On the other hand, when the Japanese pirates were captured by the Ming they were steamed to death in large jars. However, some Chinese families, such as the Hsieh family, became involved in organising this Japanese smuggling and piracy, and eventually most of the pirates in the sixteenth century were Chinese rather than Japanese, in the ratio of about seventy per cent Chinese to thirty per cent Japanese.

  Many of these Chinese pirates started out as legiti
mate traders, but were forced to become smugglers and pirates as a result of the foreign trading ban. The Ming bureaucracy believed that trade with foreigners only led to piracy, and therefore persecuted such traders. When these illegal traders were captured they suffered 100 lashes and confiscation of goods, while if humans or weapons were being carried, the punishment was death by strangulation. Despite all this, smuggling continued to increase through the 1520s and 1530s, with collusion from local families and lax military officers on the coasts of China. In 1547, the Ming general Zhu Wan was appointed to suppress piracy along the Fujian and Chekiang/Zhejiang coasts. He was quite successful in suppressing the merchant fleets that traded with the pirates, but he earned the dislike of powerful families that benefited from piracy, and so committed suicide in 1550 to avoid impeachment and disgrace. Zhu Wan had failed, and partly as a result, pirate fleets under the leadership of the merchant Wang Zhi now emerged to raid the south-east coast in 1552. These raids were very effective, and by 1554 the pirates were able to establish bases on land in order to raid even further inland. Ming armies were defeated in 1553 and 1554 by the pirates, and Ming soldiers were forced to retreat inside walled cities for protection. It seems that the merchant Wang Zhi actually wanted to return to legitimate trading, but the emperor and his bureaucrats refused to accept this option, and when Wang Zhi surrendered with the hope of a pardon, this was denied, and he was executed.1