Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

One finds himself here far from the splendor and numbers given by Dan
just 30 years earlier. This implies that the fleet was in a state of decline by the
1670s. D’Arvieux also recorded that he warned the Algerian authorities that the
Algerian Corsairs sailed without passports; and that they risk capture because
France’s 30 cruising vessels may confuse them with the Tripolitan and Sallee
corsairs. 102 This indicates that, at this period, the Algerian fleet was about the
same size as that of France but less armed. In 1676, the same observations
were made by the British Admiral John Narborough who was cruising near the
Algerian shores. This is also the period when the European powers were
engaged in huge naval building programs. 103 The consequence was that, by the
end of the 17 th century, Algiers had already lost naval supremacy.
When the famed Dr. Shaw, an English who traveled in the country
during the 1730s, published his travel account in 1737, the Algerian fleet had
already reached the bottom. 104
According to him, “the naval force of the
Algerines hath been for some years in a declining condition.” 105 He gave a
picture about both a declining fleet and competence of command and crews—
or at best an image of a less performing navy. In 1732, the navy had only half a
dozen sailing ships, from 36 to 50 Guns, and “at the same time had not half that
number of brave and experienced Captains.” 106
Consequently, the lack of
102 Labat, Mémoires du chevalier d’Arvieux, p. 114.
103 Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, pp. 19, 34.
104 Shaw’s account is the best known and most quoted work among Anglo-Saxon writers. Chapters IV
and V, however, are reproduction of Tassy’s work Histoire du royaume d’Alger which had been
published some ten years earlier along with significant parts of chapters VI, VII, and VIII.
105 Thomas Shaw, Travels, or Observations Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant
(Oxford, England: Step H. Niblett, 1737), p. 70.
106 Shaw, Travels, p. 70.
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