Don Juan Scores!
It was on October 7th of 1571 that Don Juan of Austria defeated the Ottoman Empire's Muslim navy in the Mediterranean, in what is now called the Battle of Lepanto.
That battle was about evenly matched in manpower -- each side had about 12,000 sailors, and 28,000 Christian soldiers versus 34,000 Turks. Each side had a bit over 200 ships.
There was one interesting manpower difference: Many of the oarsmen on the Christian side were free men, and thus able to carry and use their own weapons.
Many of the oarsmen on the Muslim side were also Christians -- slaves.
Interestingly, while the armed oarsmen were considered a major advantage, even the Christians phased them out over the next fifty years in favor of much cheaper convicts.
One interesting trick was employed by the Christian forces: They towed some very large ships, apparently big merchant vessels, out in front of the line of battle. The Muslims attacked -- only to discover that these were new super-warships built by Venice -- and these six galleasses (giant war-galleys) proceeded to sink 70 Muslim warships in this one encounter.
And behind the scenes of all of this was a massive bribe in a previous encounter, in which one side intentionally threw the fight. I'm jamming on a project, and will have to save that for later.
Here's a link for an animated map of the battle and a powerpoint presentation.
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That battle was about evenly matched in manpower -- each side had about 12,000 sailors, and 28,000 Christian soldiers versus 34,000 Turks. Each side had a bit over 200 ships.
There was one interesting manpower difference: Many of the oarsmen on the Christian side were free men, and thus able to carry and use their own weapons.
Many of the oarsmen on the Muslim side were also Christians -- slaves.
Interestingly, while the armed oarsmen were considered a major advantage, even the Christians phased them out over the next fifty years in favor of much cheaper convicts.
One interesting trick was employed by the Christian forces: They towed some very large ships, apparently big merchant vessels, out in front of the line of battle. The Muslims attacked -- only to discover that these were new super-warships built by Venice -- and these six galleasses (giant war-galleys) proceeded to sink 70 Muslim warships in this one encounter.
And behind the scenes of all of this was a massive bribe in a previous encounter, in which one side intentionally threw the fight. I'm jamming on a project, and will have to save that for later.
Here's a link for an animated map of the battle and a powerpoint presentation.
===|==============/ Level Head