CORSAIR METHODS OF ATTACK – PART 3

(This post is a continuation of Corsair Methods of Attack – Parts 1 and 2. If you haven’t done so already, it’s best to read those posts before continuing on here.)

The excerpt below from Thomas Phelps’s autobiography (he was Captain of the merchant ship Success, out of London) provides a detailed description of the sort of subterfuge often employed by Barbary corsairs to take European vessels.

In order for the excerpt below to make sense, you need to know the following: England and Algiers had a recognized treaty in effect when Phelp’s ship was approached by a Barbary corsair vessel, a treaty that officially guaranteed Algerian corsairs would not molest any English ships. However, the treaty did give them the right to board English ships and to inspect English ship captains’ passes to make sure they were genuine.

I have modernized the spelling and punctuation and replaced some archaic words and expressions to make the text more readable.

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Upon the 5^th of October (being then a hundred leagues west of Lisbon) we saw a sail to windward of us, which immediately we found to give us chase. We made what sail we could to get away from him, and, night coming on, we had, for about two hours, lost sight of him. But, at the rising of the moon, he got sight of us, and quickly came up with us, hailing us to enquire whence we were from. We answered from London, demanding the like of him. He made answer: from Algiers, and withal commanded us to hoist out our ship’s boat, which we refused to do, but we lowered our head-sails for him. Immediately he sent his own ship’s boat towards us. When it was got almost by our side, we gave them three shouts, which so surprised them that they thought it convenient to retire aboard their own ship. We were not a little cheered at their departure and made away from them with all the sail we could make, for we had not one great gun, and as for powder, I believe one single pound was the outmost of our store.

We had got above two miles from him, which made me think we were clear of him—and that the ship must be an Algerine. She appeared so great that, according to the stories in England, I thought no such ship could belong to Sale.¹ But I found myself within a little while mightily mistaken, for as soon as his ship’s boat was hoisted in, he presently fetched us up again. We had tried sailing all ways, but found we could not get free of him. So seeing him astern, and a thing impossible to lose sight of, I put out a light for him, notwithstanding I was possessed at that time (God knows) with fear enough, but I thought, in the dark, my seeming confidence and resolution might impose upon him, so as to fancy I was of some force. And truly afterwards he confessed to me that he thought I had six guns aboard and that I did intend to fight him.

He kept astern of me all night. In the morning he put out Turkish colors, which I answered with our English. Then he came up and saw I had no ship’s boat in sight, for my boat was stowed down betwixt decks. He commanded me therefore to brace to my head-sails, and then he sent his ship’s boat to demand my Pass. Aboard her was an ancient Moor, who formerly had been a slave in England and spoke good English, and who was set at liberty by our late Gracious King Charles the second. He, seeing us in readiness with what arms we had, asked me if I had a mind to break the peace. He told me I needed not trouble myself to keep them out of our vessel, for none of them could be persuaded to come aboard me.

I brought him my customhouse documents, but I had no official Pass: The Moor aforesaid carried them to the Captain, but soon after returned and told me that such documents would not satisfy the Captain unless the Master himself would come. I made answer that I would not come, and that I had done what I was obliged to by the Articles between England and Algiers. The boat a second time put away for their ship, and while they were hoisting their boat aboard, I made what sail I could, and was got a mile or more from them again, entertaining better hopes than I was in the night before. But as soon as the boat was in and stowed, the Moors made sail and came up with me again. Their Captain then commanded me that if I refused to come aboard his ship, he would come aboard me with his ship.

I answered that I doubted he was from Algiers. He swore in English to me that he was, else before this he would have shown himself, and he told me that if I did not come aboard he would straightway sink me. And so he hoisted out his ship’s boat, which then came aboard. I asked the Moor who spoke English what ship of Algiers this was. He very readily, without stammering, told me she was called the Tagerene. I then went into his ship’s boat. So soon as I came aboard his ship, the Captain asked me why I was so hard of belief. My distrust was such then that I asked the Captain, now that he had me aboard in his power, to tell me whether he was a Salé-man or not. He swore to me again that he was of Algiers, and that I should not be wronged. He made me sit down and caused them to set dates and figs before me.

A little after, the Captain told me that he was informed by his men that they saw two Portuguese aboard my ship, and that he would have them out, and then I should be gone about my business. I told him I had none such aboard. But he insisted on seeing the two men. So two men were sent for. After that he told me there were three more and them he must have also. Well, to be short, at last he was suspicious that I was a Portuguese also, and to convince me that I was one, I found my entertainment presently withdrawn. Thus did this faithless barbarian serve me, until he had wheedled all my men aboard him except two. And then the valiant Moors entered my vessel with abundance of courage, heaving the two remaining English over the head of the vessel into the boat.

Thus were we all stripped, the vessel plundered in a moment, which they did resolve to have sunk, because they were too far at sea distant from their own coast. But immediately we saw five sail bearing down upon us, which startled the Moors, putting them into a great fright, obliging them to quit my vessel with abundance of beef and three boxes of dry goods left aboard, which their fear would not give them leisure to rummage for. In some small time the five vessels discovered us when they came within two leagues of us. Had they bore down afterwards with that resolution that they threatened before, the pirate would never have stood to look them in the face. But alas, like distracted fearful game, every one of the five ships took a different course, and, it being now night, they all escaped.

I am pretty well satisfied for that small time that I was amongst them, (although it was too long for my profit) that no Salé-man will fight a ship of ten guns, which I found true by observation of a ship from Bristol, while I was aboard. We came up with this ship and hailed him, and would have had him put out his boat, but he refused, and withal showed himself ready in his own defense, upon which the Salé-men were glad to leave him.

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1. Salé was located on the Bou Regreg River where it flowed into the Atlantic on the Moroccan cost. A large sandbar across the river mouth, composed of riverine deposits, partially blocked the entrance to the port. Only ships with a draft of less than about nine or ten feet (about three meters) could safely pass across the sandbar, even at full tide. This limited the size of the ships that could operate out of Salé.