|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Dawn at
Sidi Bir Tee
As Related in Ye Diary of Samuel Pepys
Deciphered by Peter Hunt
Typical 17th Century seafarers:
‘ard fighting, ‘ard wenching, ‘ard drinking
rascals all: From L to R Admiral Sir Francis FitzLeigh, Corsair Jack
“Birdy” Ward, Pirate Hector Barbossa and Diarist Samuel Pepys.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys has long been a primary source for the history
of Restoration Britain in the 1660s. Pepys was Clerk of the Navy Board
and the diary gives an intimate description of everyday life in London,
Pepys’ personal affairs and dalliances, society gossip, and the social,
political and military events of the day. The diary was written in
Pepys’ own form of shorthand and further encoded by using Spanish,
French, Italian and Latin so it has been difficult to understand. All
kudos goes then to the eminent historian Peter Hunt who has deciphered a
previously unknown version of the manuscript of the diary that gives
astonishing information on an almost unheard of naval incident of the
Seventeenth Century: the Anglo-Dutch expedition to clear out the nest of
Barbary corsairs at the Tunisian port of Sidi Bir Tee. Here, for the
first time, the diary entry for that day is revealed:
The Diary
October 17th.
6 AM:
Awakened early by the mewing of the cat on the bed. Elizabeth’s snoring
made it impossible to get back to sleep so I rose, completed my
ablutions, and breakfasted handsomely on refried pease pudding, cheese,
and small beer.
8 AM:
By chair to the office. The carriers took a
divergent route and tried to charge me more than the customary three
farthings. Thrashed them soundly.
9 AM:
Despatches arrived from the Mediterranean which I opened in anticipation
of news of a great victory against the pyrates of Barbary that would
enhance the value of my recently acquired shares in the
Company of Merchants of England trading to the Seas of the Levant.
9.10 AM:
Took chair post haste to Jonathan’s Coffee House whence
I sold said shares before others get wind of the events at Sidi Bir Tee.
10 AM:
Returned to office to brief James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of
England, after first advising him to dump his shares in the Levant
Company which he did with alacrity.
It will be recalled that that the evil pyrate, renegardoe, most foul and
un-Godly apostate, and Barbary corsair Yusuf
Reis, also known as that English mutineer Jack
"Birdy" Ward, had gone too far this time in his depredations of British
and Dutch shipping in the Mediterranean. Consequently an Anglo-Dutch
naval expedition had been put together to scourge this Barbary nest of
vipers once and for all.
Ward had taken his prizes into the little port of Sidi Bir Tee on the
coast of Tunis which is home to the Dey of Tunis’ summer villa. In
addition to Ward's squadron of round ships, that included a huge
converted Venetian argosy and several smaller vessels, a Tunisian galley
squadron was based on the town. The Roads of Sidi Bir Tee provide a
good, deep water, anchorage and are protected from the elements by the
Islas Las Muertos that lie off shore, and from intruders by the Old
Castle that lies above the town and by the much bigger, and more
formidable New Castle that dominates the entry to the roads.
The formidable New Castle at Sidi Bir Tee.
Five prizes lay in the Roads, two British, two
Dutch, and the handsomest prize of all a plump, fully laden
East-Indiaman seized by Ward outside the Straits of Gibraltar. These
were guarded by a few fustas.
If Ward’s depredations were not bad enough word had come that the vile
pyrate Hector Barbossa, master of the Black Pearl, had abandoned his
usual cruising ground in the Caribbean and, seeking richer pickings in
the Mediterranean, and was lying in Sidi Bir Tee and preparing to sally
forth against Levantine shipping.
A brace of flagships: Ward’s Reniera e Soderina with Barbossa’s Black
Pearl nearest the camera.
The English and the Dutch both assembled considerable squadrons under
the command of Sir Francis Fitzleigh and Schout bij Nacht Yeffries
Herbertzoom respectively. They planned to enter the roads on the
on-shore breeze after dawn when the Turks would either be in the Mosque
or recovering from the night's debauch according to their predilections.
Whilst naval landing parties dealt with the New Castle, the main
squadrons would destroy the defences; recapture their own prizes; sink,
capture or burn the two corsair squadrons; and loot the untold riches of
the Dey's villa. It seemed like a fine plan.
The Approach at Dawn as seen from Sidi Bir Tee:
The Old Castle, the Dey’s villa and the town are in the foreground. At
the top of the picture the British and Dutch
lines come on strong with the landing parties of both nations rowing
inshore of them. Jack Ward’s squadron is moored under the guns of the
New Castle with the galley squadron beached behind them. The prizes are
anchored in an extended line between the Islas Los Muertos and the port.
The Black Pearl lies off the port bow of the line of the prizes.
Away from the watchful eyes of their admirals the
landing parties made a tardy and disorganised approach, the Dutch and
English marines rowing slowly towards the fatal shore. Only the Dutch
yacht and sloop piloting them made landfall. A devastating fire from the
star fort crippled the vessels and only one landing party assaulted the
fort: to be easily beaten back with some loss. A brave little corsair
galliot, the Full Moon, set
upon and dispersed one flotilla of longboats before being quickly sunk
herself by the guns of the main Dutch squadron.
Whilst the New Castle was so engaged the
Anglo-Dutch battle squadrons sailed majestically onwards, seeming to
sweep all before them. Yeffries Herbertzoom had taken the position of
honour for himself, leading the Dutch line which was the closest to the
coast in his flagship Zeven
Provincien. Well aimed shots damaged, but did not silence, the star
fort which also replied with some, but not dramatic, effect. Herbertzoom
then brought his guns to bear on Ward’s squadron which was only now
getting under way and working slowly against the wind. Devastating full
broadsides and poor powder storage quickly accounted for the
Rubi, the
Little John and the Carminati.
Meanwhile the British squadron was also bearing in
fast. Fitzleigh had chosen to lead from the centre of his line with his
flag in the Royal Charles and
the squadron was led by the
Charles Galley, a frigate equipped with sweeps and thus very
manoeuvrable, especially in light Mediterranean airs. Fitzleigh had also
taken the precaution of despatching the
Margaret Galley to secure the
shoals of the Islas Los Muertos.
Margaret
Galley was a most singular British
warship, a fully-fledged galley that was based at the British possession
of Tangiers and whose enslaved rowers included a contingent of Native
Americans captured by the fierce Uncas in the Colony of New York.
Looking over the bulwarks of the
Margaret Galley that morn, as they rowed like men possessed under
the overseer’s lash, and they watched the main squadron thunder out its
broadsides, they could have been forgiven if at least one of them did
not note: “we are not in Kansas anymore Toto….” They would also have
noted that the Black Pearl
was herself getting underway, and standing against the entire British
line poured a devastating bow rake into the
Charles Galley setting her
afire.
Barbossa had to pay the price for this bold
move as it exposed his stern to
Zeven Provincien which quickly raked him in turn.
The Onslaught: Shortly after this woodcut was engraved Dutch full
broadsides will reduce Ward’s squadron from five to two ships. The
galleys are coming into action but their limited firepower will hardly
dent the Dutch line. Barbossa has raked and set afire the Charles galley
but in turn exposed himself to a rake from Zeven Provincien. At the top
the Margaret Galley secures the shoal waters beyond the Islas Los
Muertos.
By now Tunisian morale was rapidly plummeting. Not
exactly being morning people at the best of times the Commander of the
Galleys and Jack Ward were both always a little grumpy until the former
had had several cups of thick Turkish coffee and the latter had found
that the Sun was over the yardarm somewhere. Now their rapid losses, and
the disparity in firepower between their ships and their assailants was
filling them with despondency. The Commander boldly led his flagship,
the Rose of Tunis at
Zeven Provincien but even the
guns of his most powerful galley barely scratched the Dutchman’s
paintwork.
Sensing victory Herbertzoom put his helm down to
run his line alongside the line of prizes and liberate them all. And as
tidy a piece of seamanship as you could like to see it would have been
too, but then fate intervened on the Turkish side as
Brederode, the third ship in
the Dutch line, had her rudder shot off by a lucky shot and could not
make the turn! The flagship Zeven
Provincien and her consort
Endracht set off alone as the Barbary galleys, what was left of
Ward’s squadron and the batteries of the New Castle concentrated on the
rear of the Dutch line. At this point Dutch command, which so far had
been superb, collapsed. The
Endracht misconstrued the Admiral’s intention and set off out of the
Roads by herself and Zeven Provincien could not stop her headlong run
with the wind broad reaching until she grappled a prize at the very far
end of the line, smashing through a flotilla of Barbary fustas on the
way.
Meanwhile the crew of Charles Galley had put the fire out just as they
fouled the Black Pearl and out of the smoke came Captain Barbossa
leading his boarders.
To avoid this dogfight the rest of the British line turned to port…
taking them straight into the confused mass made up of the rear of the
Dutch line and the beginning of the line of anchored prizes.
The Turning Point: The Commander of the Galleys looks up for divine
inspiration. His hand is obscuring the position of the Zeven Provincien
which has just run down his fustas. To its starboard the Endracht is
sailing off by itself. In the centre the British line has turned to port
to avoid the grappled Charles Galley and Black Pearl but this has
brought them into the congested area filled with the rear of the Dutch
line and the anchored prizes. Now the Corsair galleys move in for the
kill, shot in by Ward’s roundships and the star fort.
The misfortune to the Dutch brought on by
Brederode’s rudder failure
was now compounded by an earlier tactical decision of theirs. The ships
at the rear of their line were those that had given up their marines and
crews to make up the landing parties. Consequently they were at a
serious disadvantage when the fierce Turkish Janissaries came storming
aboard them. At the front the
Rose of Tunis and Brederode
fought each other to a standstill, both crippling their crews with heavy
losses, their scuppers awash with blood.
At the rear the plucky galliot
Autumn Moon took on the
slightly larger Berlin and,
with the help of some well-aimed broadsides from
Reniera e Soderina,
prevailed. In the centre the
Liefde’s crew fought lamely and quickly succumbed to the
Flying Horse. And as the
smoke cleared in the struggle between
Charles Galley and
Black Pearl a tall figure
raised a black, richly feathered, hat, called for three cheers for
victory, and took a bite out of an apple… Barbossa had triumphed!
The Decision: At the top the Tunisian Galleys storm the Dutch line,
taking two out of four and fighting the third to a mutually exhausted
standstill. At the bottom the Black Pearl and Charles Galley continue
their struggle. In the middle the British attempt to thread their way
through the melee.
With the
Zeven Provincien and the
Endracht well upwind of the struggle it would have taken too long
for them to beat back and support the British who quickly seized the
prize at their end of the line and broke off the action. But the morning
held one last surprise. As Barbossa sent
Charles Galley off with a
prize crew he started manoeuvring the
Black Pearl to avoid the
shoals. It was then that the
Margaret Galley came bows on and fired her only shots of the day,
(and first shots ever.) The Pearl
caught fire and this spread to her magazine…. Some say that even after
the explosion a tall figure in a black, richly feathered, hat was seen
calmly sitting on some flotsam and eating an apple… until a mistaken
broadside from the Charles Galley
destroyed the last wreckage.
It is not known if the Dey of Tunis was in his summer villa that day,
but if he was he would have smiled over his morning coffee. The Dutch
had re-taken one ex-English prize, and the British re-taken one ex-Dutch
prize, but the bulk of the prizes remained his, including the plump East
Indiaman, and his shore installations had been barely scratched. His
losses had been more than made up by the ships taken which would provide
sound hulls to re-equip his roundships and many slaves to power his
galleys. That Barbossa would no longer cruise these waters was not a bad
thing either… one thing that a good pirate does not need is another good
pirate preying upon his prey. It is bad for business.
The Safe Haven: The Rose of Tunis on the right and the Flying Horse
return to their berths as the Mediterranean shimmers in the sunlight of
a great victory.
12 Noon:
My
briefing finished, My Lord the Duke of York thanked me for my services
to the Crown and to his Privy Purse. With his shares in the Levant
Company sold he could face the future with equanimity. He noted that the
performance of the Margaret Galley had been a bright point in the
action. Clearly His Majesty’s Navy needed more such vessels and I was to
be in charge of the tender board for construction and fitting out. That
should be worth a pretty penny.
1 PM:
By
chair to the Cheapside. The carriers took a divergent route and tried to
charge me more than the customary three farthings. Thrashed them
soundly. Lunched handsomely on oysters and sack.
3PM:
To Mistress Betty Lane’s. She left me almost defessus of the pleasure.
9 PM:
By chair to home. The carriers took a divergent route and tried to
charge me more than the customary three farthings. Thrashed them
soundly. Wrote up my diary, I fear the poor light is increasingly
burdening my failing eyesight.
11 PM:
And so to bed….
The Game
The game was played out using Nick Wright’s
excellent “Galleys and Galleons”
rules
with a few amendments to align them with DBR ships and to allow for
squadron moves amongst other things. The amendments are
here. Some 31
ships fought it out over a 6’ x 5’table The Tunisians had 418 points and
the allies 633 points not counting the prizes, the landing longboats, or
the Black Pearl which could have fought on either side although on this
occasion Barbossa chose to obey the Pirate Code and he struck with the
Turks. The points system I use does not penalise small vessels as much
as the rules as written do, so the actual points value in the original
rules was somewhere in the region of 1,400 points.
Frankie and Jeff commanded the British and the Dutch respectively, Tony
was Ward and Nick the Commander of the Galleys. Andrzej was Hector
Barbossa and was advised that if the British caught him, he would be
hung. If the Dutch caught him he would be hung. If he stole from the
Turks and they caught him he would be hung. So taking a prize and not
being hung was not such a bad day’s work after all. Jeff provided the
fancy dress and the players entered into the spirit of things
handsomely, with lots of rolling rrrrrs, “damn your eyes you blaggards”
and the knowledge that “them that survived would envy them that died!”
I always like it when you design a scenario and then it takes a life of
its own and this one certainly did. The commanders proposed but the
enjoyable game system disposed. The landing parties languished because
they were way down the priority list for command. The events of the
tussle between the Charles Galley and the Black Pearl, including the
latter’s eventual demise under the guns of Margaret Galley and the final
indignity of friendly fire from its prize, were all generated by the
system. Likewise the Dutch command prospered when Jeff made a series of
well-judged rolls, but the wheel really fell off when he had a series of
failures turning the initiative over before the Dutch could fire, fight
or grapple the prizes so temptingly within their grasp, whilst an
apposite “All at Sea” roll sent the Endracht off by herself out of the
fight.
The Glittering Prizes: The plump, fully laden, East Indiaman still in
the Dey of Tunis’s clutches.
A Historical Note
Perhaps our more perspicuous readers may be puzzled by some apparent
historical inconsistencies in Pepys’ account. Ward was dead some 40
years before Pepys’ heyday. Barbossa is not believed to have met his
fate in the Mediterranean if indeed he did “meet his fate” there for no
body, only a black, richly feathered, hat and a half eaten apple, was
ever recovered. Since he is variously reported to have met his fate and
even be brought back from the dead in many places elsewhere, that is
hardly conclusive. The action described at Sidi Bir Tee is reminiscent
of Blake’s far more successful dawn attack on the Tunisian corsairs at
Porto Farina in 1655. Whilst the British and Dutch might occasionally
have loosely coordinated their actions against Barbary, they spent far
more time keeping a wary eye on, or actually fighting, each other. The
Margaret Galley did exist, (as indeed did all the vessels mentioned in
the text,) and she was partially crewed by Native American prisoners,
but until these revelations from Pepys’ diary most naval historians
believed that she never left her station at Tangiers.
However Hunt robustly defends his scholarship. Describing the historical
record as “incomplete and speculative” he points to the certificate of
forensic examination that came with the diary manuscript when he
purchased it. This unequivocally states that the Times New Roman font
and The Cannon MX517 laser printing are well attested to have been used
in the Pepys household in the 1660s. He further asserts that the ending
of Pepys’ diary entries in 1669 was not caused by Pepys’ fear that
composing the diary by candlelight was damaging his eyesight but rather
it was caused by the damnable price of ink cartridges.
|
