Battle of Jorge The duel between the East and the West in the Age of Navigation
This article is the 760th original work of "Burning Island Group", written by the group leader Feilong, with a total of 4543 words, 15 pictures, and an estimated 15 minutes to read.
After da Gama successfully bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and reached Malindi under Muslim control, the thousand-year-old barrier between the two seas of East and West was broken, and the Portuguese were finally able to sail directly to India and establish a direct route.
However, the Portuguese who broke into the Indian Ocean clearly touched the Indian Ocean market, which the Muslims had controlled for thousands of years. When huge interests conflict, it cannot be resolved through mere rhetoric.
Therefore, the Portuguese will not only clash with the Muslims, the thousand-year-old hegemon of the Indian Ocean, but will also cross the Indian subcontinent and cross the Strait of Malacca to directly contact and clash with our ** great power.
It is a direct connection and conflict between two social structures, two cognitive systems, and two worlds for thousands of years, and it continues even today.
Figure 1The fortress of Diu, a maritime town in the northwest corner of the Indian subcontinent, was once a Muslim monopoly, but the arrival of the Portuguese broke the situation and inevitably led to war.
On May 18, 1498, da Gama's small fleet docked at the Malabar coast, about 50 miles north of Calicut, and on the 28th the fleet arrived at the port of Calicut, where stone pillars were erected.
Although Calicut's tax rate was low, the Muslims controlled foreign trade and commerce, and the Portuguese had difficulty selling their goods here, and were resisted and hostile to them.
Da Gama was once held by Muslims, nearly killed, and was able to escape a few days later.
Vasco da Gama and Caprolar's conquest.
Figure 3On the Portuguese voyage to India, relations with the natives were not harmonious, often accompanied by bloodshed and conflicts of interest. In 1502, Vasco da Gama led a fleet of 20 armed galleons on a much larger scale than the previous two voyages, establishing supply and trading depots in East African cities such as Mozambique.
Upon arrival in India, da Gama ordered the bombardment of the city of Calicut and forced Samulim to sign an unequal ** treaty. After the establishment of forts on the southwest coast of India, the fleet returned with a large load of oriental spices and cargo.
Before returning, da Gama left behind a fixed small fleet in the Indian Ocean to rob ships traveling between India and Africa.
In 1505, King Manuel I of Portugal appointed Francisco de Almeida as Viceroy of India, and he began his military conquest of India with a fleet of 21 sailing ships and 1,500 soldiers.
Almeida's mission was to annihilate non-Portuguese ships, monopolize all the ** in the East, and capture important coastal strongholds. Between July and August 1505, his fleet captured the East African city-states of Kilwa and Mombasa.
After arriving in India, Almeida began to build forts near Goa, capturing Cochin and other places to establish fortified strongholds. In addition, his fleet has explored places such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Although his men were small, Almeida's fleet continued to go east, signing an agreement with Moluccas. He allowed Portugal to monopolize all the profits of the East**, blocking the sea route from Gibraltar to Singapore.
The large galleys shown in Figure 5 were not very powerful due to the limitations of the oarling area, although the bow and stern guns were added after the Middle Ages.
In order to compensate for the lack of maritime power in the Indian subcontinent, the Portuguese built a certain number of galleys and hired local oarsmen. At the same time, the bow of the ship was also equipped with a cannon.
The ** route they opened up aroused the jealousy of the Republic of Venice, and in order to exclude the Portuguese, Venice chose to join forces with the Muslims. They recruited 1,700 sailors, pirates and soldiers from Egypt's northern coast, Italy, Greece and eastern Spain and transported them to the port of Suez in the Sinai Peninsula.
There, they built 6 large galleys and 6 carraks, and by the second half of 1507 their fleet was ready.
Figure 7The Muslim-Venetian coalition led by Mir Hussam assembled at Port Suez and crossed the Red Sea, bypassing the Arabian Peninsula and into the Persian Gulf, and finally entering the waters near Joll in March 1508 for the first large-scale naval battle with the Portuguese.
The Combined Fleet was formally formed after sea trials in the waters close to Mecca, commanded by Mir Hussam and supported by Venetian advisers, to India. With a capacity of 180 oarsmen, as well as 50 Venetian musketeers or Muslim crossbowmen, the galleys in the Combined Fleet were ancient warships that had been in use in the Mediterranean for millennia.
The Carak Galleon required dozens of ** instructors to be able to maneuver it, and it could be equipped with heavy artillery, and its power was comparable to that of its Portuguese opponents. More space on board allows for ample supplies.
The combined fleet of 1,700 men was on par with the Portuguese. In March 1508, the Combined Fleet, which had arrived in India, began to move south in search of the Portuguese fleet. They soon discovered that Almeida's son, Lorenzo de Almeida, was escorting a convoy of 20 Indian merchant ships with 3 small Karak warships, 3 Caravel ships, and 2 large galleys.
On 24 March, while Lorenço's flotilla was anchored in the port of Jorge, the combined fleet launched a surprise attack.
Figure 8 shows the Portuguese fleet anchored off the coast of the Indian subcontinent, including at least five large sailing ships, which marked the beginning of the Portuguese's extensive use of large seagoing vessels in the area.
At first, the Portuguese mistook the sailing ships for friendly forces from the Persian Gulf, but it was only when the five Karak galleons of the Muslim fleet rushed very close that the Portuguese realized their mistake.
It is noteworthy that Portuguese warships were anchored at anchorages far from the coast, while the protected Indian merchant fleet was anchored closer to the coast.
In Figure 9, we see that on the Portuguese carak sailboat, the cross on the sail represents the owner of the ship as a ** disciple, and there are already gun doors on both sides of the hull, which increases the firepower of the sailboat.
Mir Hussam's ships fired their guns and a large number of crossbowmen fired arrows at the Portuguese ships, and the Egyptian and Turkish infantry were ready to jump on board in the hope of capturing the Portuguese ships in one fell swoop.
The Portuguese had the advantage of more artillery, as their ships were equipped with more guns, mainly with gun doors on the lower deck, and the fire was more intense. In addition, after artillery became practical in the Middle Ages, it naturally became a weapon of naval warfare.
However, the heaviness of the guns and shells can raise the center of gravity of the sailboat, causing instability or even sinking, and this instability is exacerbated by the elevation of the bow and stern towers in response to the storms and waves in the Atlantic.
HMS Mary Rose: The world's first British-built Carrack to be equipped with a ship's side gun door and move the gun down to the gun deck. However, in 1545, due to a strong wind blowing from the side, the ship's center of gravity was too high, which eventually caused it to capsize and sink.
Although it is more than 500 years old, we can still feel the advanced nautical technology of the time from its design.
Figure 11 shows the newly built Mary Rose, with its double gun deck and nine giant sails mounted on four giant masts in the fore and fore masts, allowing it to speed faster than many lighter sailing ships.
From this moment on, Western-style galleons began to dominate the Oriental Arabic and Chinese-style sailing ships.
Figure 12"Mary Rose": a symbol of national strength and a solution to the war In non-war times, "Mary Rose" demonstrated its majesty as a symbol of national power.
But in the face of war, there seem to be only two solutions: one is to improve the casting technology of naval guns and reduce weight; The second is to place the artillery on the deck and sink, and open the gun doors on both sides of the hull, open the door during battle, and close it in peacetime.
This innovative idea is said to have been proposed by the Frenchman de Charge, and the first battleship built in this way was the Carrack galleon "Mary Rose" of the British Navy in 1511, which had a double gun deck and broadside gun doors.
However, it is curious that the Portuguese galleons in the Battle of Joor, which broke out in 1508, were not yet equipped with broadside gun doors. Probably because of the suppression of Portuguese firepower, the Muslim fleet could only stop at a distance of 500 meters and could not achieve victory.
The next day, the tide of battle took a turn for the man, and the Portuguese took the initiative and managed to capture two galleys. However, the arrival of reinforcements from the Gujarati boosted the morale of the Muslim fleet, and the Portuguese had to retreat into the harbor.
Figure 13 shows an Ottoman manuscript depicting a fierce naval battle between the Muslim navy and the Portuguese.
When the Portuguese first arrived in India, they were surprised to find that the Arab galleons were much larger than their warships. Although after the development of Western sailing technology, the gap of the Portuguese began to appear, on the morning of the third day they chose to retreat.
The protected Indian merchant ships, the Portuguese warships, and even the two galleys captured the day before were dragged behind, with Lorenzo's flagship in the last break.
However, on this day, the Gujarati also joined the warband, and together with the Hussam fleet, they besieged the Portuguese. Lorenzo's flagship, wounded in previous battles, began to leak and became slower, with the Muslim and Indian fleets surrounding the flagship.
A cannonball killed Lorenzo, and the crew threw his body into the sea to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. More and more Muslims boarded the flagship of Lorenço, and the battle turned into a **, with only 19 of the more than 100 crew members on the Portuguese flagship surviving.
Among them, one is named Andrew. Fernández's midshipman cadet continued to resist for 2 days in the ship's mid-mast basket, occasionally throwing stones at the siege below.
The other Portuguese ships were unable to rescue them, so they had to return to Cochin, the main base in the south, to report the defeat to the Governor of Almeida.
At the Battle of Jorge, the Portuguese tried to strike at the enemy by encircling and annihilating the flagship of the Combined Fleet, but the unfavorable direction of the wind caused this plan to fail. This grieves Almeida, who vows to avenge his 28-year-old son.
In the same year, he imprisoned Governor-designate Alfonso de Abukirque, who had come to replace him, and then led his fleet north along the coast of India. In this process, we see the cruel reality that "fairness and justice" only exist within the range of cannons, otherwise there would be no chance to leave a record in history.
This is history, and although it is full of tragedies, we must learn and grow from it. Stay tuned for the rest as we continue to tell you this story.