SPOILS OF THE SIEGE FOR BIRGU’S & SENGLEA’S SWIMMERS
The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 was one of the most heroic battles of the 16th century. The small island of Malta, defended only by the Maltese and just 6,100 knights and soldiers, faced an invading Ottoman force of around 40,000. The Ottomans, one of the most powerful empires at the time, aimed to capture Malta to secure a strategic base in the Mediterranean.
Siege of Fort St Elmo, D’Aleccio Fresco. Source: Heritage Malta
During the night, a strange rumbling echoed across the sea. Hundreds of sweating and straining men and oxen were pulling on ropes and chains to drag about eighty ships on wooden rollers over the narrow strip of land between Marsamxett Harbour and the Grand Harbour. Realising that the Turks would now be able to attack Senglea from both land and sea, Grand Master De Valette decided to build a palisade or stoccado (a fence of stakes driven into the ground) to prevent the Ottoman fleet from beaching their boats or their soldiers from swimming ashore.
Design by Robert Caruana Dingli from the book Outlines of Maltese History by Salvatore Laspina
Great Siege of Malta, 1565. Source: museumstjohn.org.uk (D’Aleccio Frescoes, Grand Master’s Palace, Valletta).
At the end of the first week of July, Mustapha Pasha, the commander of the land forces, prepared to launch his ships in the Grand Harbour. Seeing the palisade, he ordered a group of his best swimmers to destroy it. Armed with axes and hatchets, they plunged into the warm sea and swam the four or five hundred feet across the creek. Admiral de Monte, the commander in Senglea, urgently called for volunteers to defend the palisade. Though most people did not know how to swim, a group of brave Maltese men answered the call, climbing down the walls of Fort St Michael and diving naked into the sea with daggers and short stabbing swords clenched between their teeth. They fought fiercely in the water, defending the palisade pole by pole.
The Maltese were not only more skilled swimmers but were fueled by the desire to protect their homeland. Within minutes, they had already killed one Turk and wounded others. Soon, the waters of the creek were stained red with their blood, and the rest of the swimmers began to retreat, leaving the Maltese to repair the damage to the fence. The Spanish private soldier Francisco Balbi di Correggio, who wrote an eyewitness account of the siege, mentions the names of four of these Maltese heroes -Pedro Bola, Martin, Juan del Pont and Francisco Saltaron. As these names don’t really sound Maltese, they were probably translated into Spanish by Balbi.
Yet the danger was far from over. Algerian forces, under Hassem, the Viceroy of Algiers, attempted to storm the walls of Senglea. Cannon from the defenders blew holes in their ranks, only to be replaced by wave upon wave of Ottomans. Even the women and children joined the knights and soldiers on the bastions, throwing stones and boiling water on the attackers. Amidst the constant bombardment, an explosion in a powder magazine broke part of Senglea’s wall, creating an opening for the Ottomans. Sensing a breakthrough, they charged, only to face another fierce counterattack led by Commander Zanoguerra and Fra Roberto, a priest who urged everyone to “die like men” for their faith. But then Zanoguerra was shot dead by a musketeer, causing panic. Just as the Turks seemed to gain ground, reinforcements sent by de Valette arrived from Birgu across a bridge of boats, holding back the attackers.
Whilst the battle was raging in the south, Mustapha tried one last tactic: ordering ten boats loaded with over a thousand elite Ottoman Janissaries to attack Senglea from the peninsula’s northern tip. Confident of victory, he overlooked a hidden battery of cannons almost at sea level below Fort St Angelo. Chevalier de Guiral, in charge of the cannons, gave the order to fire. The resulting barrage shredded the Turkish ships, turning the sea into a deadly storm of shrapnel and foam. Hundreds of Janissaries drowned or were hacked down upon reaching the shore. They were shown no mercy by the defenders, as the events of St Elmo were very fresh in their minds.
The day’s battle finally came to a close, with an unexpected foray of Knights from the gates of Fort St Michael. That night, bands of Maltese swimmers from both Birgu and Senglea slipped into the waters, slowly seizing the jewels and rings, the ornamented daggers and the purses of money from the floating bodies of the richly dressed Turks.
Written with reference to:
‘The Great Siege, Malta 1565’ by Ernle Bradford, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1961