It was a showdown that had been months in the planning.
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| Pellew: no mood for nonsense |
In his cabin aboard the Queen Charlotte stood Edward Pellew, a bluff naval commander with an overriding sense of human justice.
On shore, less than a mile away, was his adversary, Omar Bashaw, the ruling Dey of Algiers. He was keeping some 1,600 European and American slaves in the most appalling conditions. Now, in August, 1816, Pellew had come to rescue them.
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| Can I see your teeth? A 19th century depiction of Algiers slave market |
He began with negotiations, but the Dey was not interested. He had no intention of releasing his slaves. Pellew realised that the only option was war.
But it was a peculiarly dangerous war. Omar Bashaw was a shrewd military tactician who had strengthened the city’s defences and summoned thousands of soldiers to fight in his behalf. He also had 90 ships at his disposal.
Pellew, by contrast, had just 27 vessels and was operating far from home. There was plenty of possibility for things to go wrong.
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| A thunderous roar: let battle commence |
The battle began with a single shot from a land battery. It may have been fired by mistake, but it wrung a devastating response from the furious Pellew. Standing on the deck of his flagship, he raised his hat high in the air, held it still for a second, then flung it to the deck. It was the signal for action. Seconds later, there was a thunderous roar as all the ships of his fleet opened fire.
The Queen Charlotte’s twenty-four pounders blasted their broadside at the city, pumping cannon balls into Algiers’ defences. In the maintop, the twelve pounders also let rip, each gun unleashing 300 musket balls at a time.
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| White slaves were poked, prodded and then sold |
Pellew’s men were putting up an impressive attack, but the Dey’s forces proved a deadly enemy. Snipers and sharpshooters in the mole-head battery kept up a relentless fire while heavy shot from the cannon on shore tore through rigging and sails, disabling the ships.
‘Legs, arms, blood, brains and mangled bodies were strewn about in all directions,’ wrote one lieutenant. ‘You could scarcely keep your feet from the slipperiness of the decks, wet with blood.’
Pellew refused to withdraw, despite the bloodshed. ‘The battle,’ he later wrote, ‘was fairly at issue between a handful of Britons in the noble cause of Christianity and a horde of fanatics.’
By dusk, Pellew’s men had rained down a staggering 50,000 cannon balls on Algiers. The main town batteries had been reduced to rubble, allowing Pellew to turn his attention to the Dey’s massive corsair fleet at anchor in the harbour. He now unleashed firebombs and shells into the vessels with devastating effect. Soon, all the ships were on fire, as was the on-shore arsenal and storehouses, ‘exhibiting a spectacle of awful grandeur and interest no pen can describe.’
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| Fighting continued until nightfall |
The arrival of darkness interrupted the battle, although the light of the fire kept the men awake for much of the night.
When dawn broke, the American consul, who was still on shore, rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The town had been utterly destroyed.
The harbour, too, was a scene of carnage. ‘The most dreadful and shocking sight was the number of dead bodies which were floating on the water.’ More than 2,000 of the Dey’s men had been killed, most of them corsairs.
Pellew was keen to renew the hostilities at first light, but he discovered that he was almost out of ammunition. He was unable to press home his advantage.
But he also discovered that there was no need. The Dey of Algiers made a brief survey of his once glorious capital and realised that he could no longer continue the fight.
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| Ill-treatment of slaves a thing of the past |
He surrendered unconditionally - a humiliating blow to his pride - and bowed to all of Pellew’s demands. These included the release of all his Christian slaves and the abolition - forever - of Christian slavery.
For the slaves themselves, held in captivity for years, it was a moment to be savoured. ‘We rushed from out of the cave,’ wrote one, ‘and dragging our chains, pushed forward through brambles and thickets, regardless of the blood streaming from our faces and bodies. We simply did not feel our wounds any more.’
They ran to the shoreline where they saw the English fleet, battered but still afloat, just a few hundred metres away. They cheered, sang with joy and then - with one exultant cry - shouted, ‘Long live the English admiral.’
Pellew himself was immensely proud of what he had achieved.
‘To have been one of the humble instruments…’ he wrote, ‘in destroying forever the insufferable and horrible system of Christian slavery can never cease to be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort.’
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The full story of North Africa's one million white slaves is told in my book White Gold, (left) available here.
My latest book, Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War (right) is available here.
