119-498: Morro Castle may refer to: Fortress [ edit ] Morro Castle (Havana) , a fortress guarding Havana Bay, Cuba Castillo San Felipe del Morro , a fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca , also called "Castillo del Morro" ("Morro Castle"), a fortress guarding Santiago, Cuba Ship [ edit ] SS Morro Castle (1900) , passenger liner of
238-563: A British party stormed a detached redoubt on the La Cabana heights. Only then did the British command realize how strong the Morro was, surrounded by brushwood and protected by a large ditch. With the arrival of their siege train the next day, the British began erecting batteries among the trees on La Cabana hill overlooking the Morro (some 7 metres (23 ft) higher) as well as the city and
357-588: A century. More recently, pirates of the "golden age" were further stereotyped and popularized by the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, which began in 2003. The English word "pirate" is derived from the Latin pirata ("pirate, corsair, sea robber"), which comes from Greek πειρατής ( peiratēs ), "brigand", from πειράομαι (peiráomai), "I attempt", from πεῖρα ( peîra ), "attempt, experience". The meaning of
476-702: A companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy as the Likedeelers . They were especially noted for their leaders Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels . Until about 1440, maritime trade in both the North Sea , the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia was seriously in danger of attack by the pirates. H. Thomas Milhorn mentions a certain Englishman named William Maurice, convicted of piracy in 1241, as
595-706: A disciplined militia of eight infantry battalions and one regiment each of cavalry and dragoons, totaling 7,500 soldiers, with many of the officers from prominent Cuban families. Havana and Manila were returned to Spain as a result of the Treaty of Paris signed in February 1763. Still, the British occupation lasted until two months later, when a newly appointed Captain General of Cuba , Alejandro O'Reilly , arrived to re-establish Spanish rule. Spain agreed to cede Florida and Menorca to Great Britain. The loss of Florida and
714-549: A few years later. In 264, the Goths reached Galatia and Cappadocia , and Gothic pirates landed on Cyprus and Crete . In the process, the Goths seized enormous booty and took thousands into captivity. In 286 AD, Carausius , a Roman military commander of Gaulish origins, was appointed to command the Classis Britannica , and given the responsibility of eliminating Frankish and Saxon pirates who had been raiding
833-621: A lasting peace, while Tripoli was similarly coerced in 1686. In 1783 and 1784 the Spaniards bombarded Algiers in an effort to stem the piracy. The second time , Admiral Barceló damaged the city so severely that the Algerian Dey asked Spain to negotiate a peace treaty. From then on, Spanish vessels and coasts were safe for several years. Until the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, British treaties with
952-778: A legitimate response to the fact that their land was poor and it became their main source of income. The main victims of Maniot pirates were the Ottomans but the Maniots also targeted ships of European countries. Zaporizhian Sich was a pirate republic in Europe from the 16th through to the 18th century. Situated in Cossack territory in the remote steppe of Eastern Europe, it was populated with Ukrainian peasants that had run away from their feudal masters, outlaws, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish galleys , etc. The remoteness of
1071-600: A navigational landmark. The fortress is part of the Old Havana World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1982 for its historical importance in the European conquest of the New World and its unique mix of architecture. Colonial Cuba was a frequent target of buccaneers , pirates and French corsairs seeking Spain's New World riches. In response to repeated raids, defenses were bolstered throughout
1190-656: A part of Western pop culture . The two-volume A General History of the Pyrates , published in London in 1724, is generally credited with bringing key piratical figures and a semi-accurate description of their milieu in the " Golden Age of Piracy " to the public's imagination. The General History inspired and informed many later fictional depictions of piracy, most notably the novels Treasure Island (1883) and Peter Pan (1911), both of which have been adapted and readapted for stage, film, television, and other media across over
1309-432: A raid was necessary against the British batteries. At dawn on 29 June, 988 men (a mixed company of grenadiers, marines, engineers, and enslaved people) attacked the siege works. They reached the British batteries from the rear and started to spike guns, but the British reaction was swift, and the attackers were repulsed before they caused any serious damage. On 1 July, the British launched a combined land and naval attack on
SECTION 10
#17327733971961428-534: A ship named Velasco in the Spanish fleet after that. The loss of Havana and Western Cuba was a severe blow to Spain. Not only were the financial losses considerable, the loss in prestige was even greater. This defeat, together with the conquest of Manila by the British one and a half months later, meant the loss of Spain's 'Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies' as well as its colonial capital of
1547-633: A ship of 78 guns belonging to the Compañía de La Habana, a number of smaller armed vessels belonging to it and the Compañía de Caracas and nearly 100 merchant ships. Two new almost-completed ships of the line in the dockyard, the San Carlos (80) and Santiago (80), were burnt. In addition, two small frigates or corvettes and two 18-gun sloops, including the Marte commanded by Domingo de Bonechea , and several smaller vessels were captured either along
1666-419: A smaller type than battle galleys, often referred to as galiots or fustas . Pirate galleys were small, nimble, lightly armed, but often crewed in large numbers in order to overwhelm the often minimal crews of merchant ships. In general, pirate craft were extremely difficult for patrolling craft to actually hunt down and capture. Anne Hilarion de Tourville , a French admiral of the 17th century, believed that
1785-419: A state government . Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the 21st century , seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue, with estimated worldwide losses of US$ 25 billion in 2023, increased from US$ 16 billion in 2004. The waters between
1904-484: A sweeping view down to Cojimar . A cannon is fired at 9 pm nightly; the "El Cañonazo de las 9" is a leftover custom kept from colonial times signaling the closure of the city gates. Morro Castle can be seen in the background of John Singleton Copley 's oil painting Watson and the Shark (1778). Morro Castle appears in the movie The Ghost Breakers (1940) in the background as Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard enter
2023-694: A tribe called the Narentines revived the old Illyrian piratical habits and often raided the Adriatic Sea starting in the 7th century. Their raids in the Adriatic increased rapidly, until the whole Sea was no longer safe for travel. The Narentines took more liberties in their raiding quests while the Venetian Navy was abroad, as when it was campaigning in Sicilian waters in 827–882. As soon as
2142-628: A year of capture, most of the captives of the Iranun and Banguingui would be bartered off in Jolo usually for rice, opium, bolts of cloth, iron bars, brassware, and weapons. The buyers were usually Tausug datu from the Sultanate of Sulu who had preferential treatment, but buyers also included European ( Dutch and Portuguese ) and Chinese traders as well as Visayan pirates ( renegados ). Spanish authorities and native Christian Filipinos responded to
2261-593: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Morro Castle (Havana) The Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (English: "Castle of the Three Kings of Morro" ), also known as Castillo del Morro (Morro Castle), is a fortress guarding the entrance to the Havana harbor. The design is by the Italian engineer Battista Antonelli (1547–1616). Originally under
2380-478: Is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice , as these attacks often occur in international waters . Nations have used their naval forces to repel and pursue pirates, and some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons , or sound cannons to repel boarders, and use radar to avoid potential threats. Romanticised accounts of piracy during the Age of Sail have long been
2499-443: Is the setting for many of the book's events, including its tragic finale. Piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates , and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships . The earliest documented instances of piracy were in
SECTION 20
#17327733971962618-790: The Arabs . In 846, the Narentines broke through to Venice itself and raided its lagoon city of Caorle . This caused a Byzantine military action against them that brought Christianity to them. After the Arab raids on the Adriatic coast circa 872 and the retreat of the Imperial Navy, the Narentines continued their raids of Venetian waters, causing new conflicts with the Italians in 887–888. The Venetians futilely continued to fight them throughout
2737-778: The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1820, another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal again bombarded Algiers. Corsair activity based in Algiers did not entirely cease until its conquest by France in 1830 . In thalassocratic Austronesian cultures in Island Southeast Asia , maritime raids for slaves and resources against rival polities have ancient origins. It was associated with prestige and prowess and often recorded in tattoos. Reciprocal raiding traditions were recorded by early European cultures as being prevalent throughout Island Southeast Asia. With
2856-640: The Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa . The Senate invested the general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus with powers to deal with piracy in 67 BC (the Lex Gabinia ), and Pompey, after three months of naval warfare, managed to suppress the threat . As early as 258 AD, the Gothic - Herulic fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara . The Aegean coast suffered similar attacks
2975-526: The Gulf of Aden , and the English Channel , whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term piracy generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks , and (in science fiction) outer space. Piracy usually excludes crimes committed by the perpetrator on their own vessel (e.g. theft), as well as privateering , which implies authorization by
3094-599: The North African states protected American ships from the Barbary corsairs. Morocco , which in 1777 was the first independent nation to publicly recognize the United States , became in 1784 the first Barbary power to seize an American vessel after independence. While the United States managed to secure peace treaties, these obliged it to pay tribute for protection from attack. Payments in ransom and tribute to
3213-680: The Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. Don Cossacks under Stenka Razin even ravaged the Persian coasts. Though less famous and romanticized than Atlantic or Caribbean pirates, corsairs in the Mediterranean equaled or outnumbered the former at any given point in history. Mediterranean piracy was conducted almost entirely with galleys until the mid-17th century, when they were gradually replaced with highly maneuverable sailing vessels such as xebecs and brigantines . They were of
3332-666: The Philippines after 1565. These slaves were taken from piracy on passing ships as well as coastal raids on settlements as far as the Malacca Strait , Java , the southern coast of China and the islands beyond the Makassar Strait . Most of the slaves were Tagalogs , Visayans , and "Malays" (including Bugis , Mandarese , Iban , and Makassar ). There were also occasional European and Chinese captives who were usually ransomed off through Tausug intermediaries of
3451-574: The Qing period, Chinese pirate fleets grew increasingly large. The effects large-scale piracy had on the Chinese economy were immense. They preyed voraciously on China's junk trade, which flourished in Fujian and Guangdong and was a vital artery of Chinese commerce. Pirate fleets exercised hegemony over villages on the coast, collecting revenue by exacting tribute and running extortion rackets. In 1802,
3570-690: The Red Sea and the Indian Ocean , off the Somali coast and in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore have frequently been targeted by modern pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles , and machine guns, grenades and rocket propelled grenades . They often use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships. The international community
3689-774: The Roman Republic . It was not until 229 BC when the Romans decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended. During the 1st century BC, there were pirate states along the Anatolian coast, threatening the commerce of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean. On one voyage across the Aegean Sea in 75 BC, Julius Caesar was kidnapped and briefly held by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in
Morro Castle - Misplaced Pages Continue
3808-551: The Spanish East Indies . These events confirmed British naval supremacy and showed the fragility of the Spanish Empire . Just as the earlier War of Jenkins' Ear had forced the British government into thoroughly reviewing its military, this war forced the Spanish government into undertaking a similar process. The invasions of Havana and Manilla were the catalyst for profound political and military reforms in
3927-576: The Sulu Sea : the Sultanate of Sulu , the Sultanate of Maguindanao , and the Confederation of Sultanates in Lanao (the modern Moro people ). It is estimated that from 1770 to 1870, around 200,000 to 300,000 people were enslaved by Iranun and Banguingui slavers. David P. Forsythe put the estimate much higher, at around 2 million slaves captured within the first two centuries of Spanish rule of
4046-524: The Sulu Sultanate . Slaves were the primary indicators of wealth and status, and they were the source of labor for the farms, fisheries, and workshops of the sultanates. While personal slaves were rarely sold, they trafficked extensively in slaves purchased from the Iranun and Banguingui slave markets . By the 1850s, slaves constituted 50% or more of the population of the Sulu archipelago. The scale
4165-528: The Yellow Sea . Heungdeok agreed and in 828 formally established the Cheonghae ( 淸海 , "clear sea") Garrison ( 청해진 ) at what is today Wando island off Korea's South Jeolla province. Heungdeok gave Jang an army of 10,000 men to establish and man the defensive works. The remnants of Cheonghae Garrison can still be seen on Jang islet just off Wando's southern coast. Jang's force, though nominally bequeathed by
4284-597: The 10th and 11th centuries. Domagoj was accused of attacking a ship which was bringing home the papal legates who had participated in the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council , after which Pope John VIII addresses to Domagoj with request that his pirates stop attacking Christians at sea. In 937, Irish pirates sided with the Scots, Vikings, Picts , and Welsh in their invasion of England. Athelstan drove them back. The Slavic piracy in
4403-520: The 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples , a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding . Historic examples of such areas include the waters of Gibraltar , the Strait of Malacca , Madagascar ,
4522-563: The 17th century. France encouraged the corsairs against Spain, and later Britain and Holland supported them against France. By the second half of the 17th century the greater European naval powers began to initiate reprisals to intimidate the Barbary States into making peace with them. The most successful of the Christian states in dealing with the corsair threat was England. From the 1630s onwards England had signed peace treaties with
4641-665: The Atlantic and struck as far north as Iceland. According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most famous corsairs were the Ottoman Albanian Hayreddin and his older brother Oruç Reis (Redbeard), Turgut Reis (known as Dragut in
4760-405: The Baltic Sea ended with the Danish conquest of the Rani stronghold of Arkona in 1168. In the 12th century the coasts of western Scandinavia were plundered by Curonians and Oeselians from the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. In the 13th and 14th century, pirates threatened the Hanseatic routes and nearly brought sea trade to the brink of extinction. The Victual Brothers of Gotland were
4879-429: The Barbary States on various occasions, but invariably breaches of these agreements led to renewed wars. Albanian piracy , mainly centered in the town of Ulcinj (thus came to be known as Dulcignotti ), flourished during the 15th to the 19th century. France, which had recently emerged as a leading naval power, achieved comparable success soon afterwards, with bombardments of Algiers in 1682, 1683 and 1688 securing
Morro Castle - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-484: The Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800, leading to the Barbary Wars that ended the payment of tribute. Algiers broke the 1805 peace treaty after only two years, and refused to implement the 1815 treaty until compelled to do so by Britain in 1816. In 1815, the sacking of Palma on the island of Sardinia by a Tunisian squadron, which carried off 158 inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Britain had by this time banned
5117-539: The British admiral who devised the scheme, saw his 4,000 occupying troops capitulate to raids by Spanish troops and, more critically, an epidemic, forcing him to withdraw his fleet to British Jamaica . In the War of the Austrian Succession , the British carried out unsuccessful attacks against Santiago de Cuba in 1741 and again in 1748 . Additionally, a skirmish between British and Spanish naval squadrons occurred near Havana in 1748 . The Seven Years' War erupted in 1754 across three continents and eventually arrived in
5236-459: The British occupation of the city proved short-lived. Pressure from London sugar merchants fearing a decline in sugar prices forced a series of negotiations with the Spanish over colonial territories. Less than a year after Havana was seized, the Peace of Paris was signed by the three warring powers, ending the Seven Years' War. The treaty gave Britain Florida in exchange for Cuba on France's recommendation to Spain. The French advised that declining
5355-427: The Cuban coast or in Havana harbour. After the capture, Prize money payments of £122,697 each were made to Pocock as naval commander and to Albemarle as military commander, with £24,539 paid to Commodore Keppel , the naval second-in-command who was Albemarle's younger brother. Each of the 42 naval captains present received £1,600 as prize money. The military second-in-command, Lieutenant-General Eliott , received
5474-408: The French during their journey, with the loss through the capture of some 500 men, consisted of By 25 July 5, 000 soldiers and 3,000 sailors were sick. On 29 July, the mine near the right bastion of the Morro fort was completed and ready to explode. Albemarle vainly feigned an assault, hoping that Velasco would finally decide to surrender. On the contrary, Velasco launched a desperate attack from
5593-412: The Greek word peiratēs literally is "anyone who attempts something". Over time it came to be used of anyone who engaged in robbery or brigandry on land or sea. The term first appeared in English c. 1300. Spelling did not become standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as "pirrot", "pyrate" and "pyrat" occurred until this period. The earliest documented instances of piracy are
5712-434: The Moro raiders and could give chase. As resistance against raiders increased, Lanong warships of the Iranun were eventually replaced by the smaller and faster garay warships of the Banguingui in the early 19th century. The Moro raids were eventually subdued by several major naval expeditions by the Spanish and local forces from 1848 to 1891, including retaliatory bombardment and capture of Moro settlements. By this time,
5831-464: The Moro slave raids by building watchtowers and forts across the Philippine archipelago, many of which are still standing today. Some provincial capitals were also moved further inland. Major command posts were built in Manila , Cavite , Cebu , Iloilo , Zamboanga , and Iligan . Defending ships were also built by local communities, especially in the Visayas Islands , including the construction of war " barangayanes " ( balangay ) that were faster than
5950-435: The Morro from La Cabana. Mackellar gradually advanced his breastworks towards the ditch under cover of these batteries, so by the end of the month, the British had increased their daily direct hits on the Morro to 500. Velasco was losing as many as 30 men each day, and repairing the fortress every night was so exhausting that men had to be rotated into the fort from the city every three days. Velasco finally convinced Prado that
6069-405: The Morro. The fleet detached four ships of the line for this purpose: HMS Stirling Castle , HMS Dragon , HMS Marlborough and HMS Cambridge . The naval and land artillery simultaneously opened fire on the Morro. However, naval guns were ineffective, and the fort was too high. Counter-fire from thirty guns of the Morro inflicted 192 casualties and seriously damaged the ships, one of which
SECTION 50
#17327733971966188-609: The Qing navy. However, a combination of famine, Qing naval opposition, and internal rifts crippled piracy in China around the 1820s, and it has never again reached the same status. In the 1840s and 1850s, United States Navy and Royal Navy forces campaigned together against Chinese pirates. Major battles were fought such as those at Ty-ho Bay and the Tonkin River though pirate junks continued operating off China for years more. However, some British and American individual citizens also volunteered to serve with Chinese pirates to fight against European forces. The British offered rewards for
6307-437: The Silla king, was effectively under his own control. Jang became arbiter of Yellow Sea commerce and navigation. From the 13th century, Wokou based in Japan made their debut in East Asia, initiating invasions that would persist for 300 years. The wokou raids peaked in the 1550s , but by then the wokou were mostly Chinese smugglers who reacted strongly against the Ming dynasty 's strict prohibition on private sea trade. During
6426-405: The Spanish Caribbean. Spain's alliance with the French pitched them into direct conflict with the British, and in 1762 a British expedition of five warships and 4,000 troops set out from Portsmouth to capture Cuba. The British arrived on 6 June and, by August, had Havana under siege . When Havana surrendered, the admiral of the British fleet, George Keppel , the 3rd Earl of Albemarle , entered
6545-501: The Spanish acceptance of British occupation of the Miskito Coast heightened Cuba's value as the first line of defence for the Spanish South American colonies. Spain received French Louisiana as payment for intervening in the war on the side of the French and as compensation for having lost Florida. El Morro once housed a school for lighthouse keepers. There was a watchtower here until the British blew it up during their successful siege in 1762. The Faro Castillo del Morro lighthouse
6664-418: The Spanish could react, sixteen men gained a foothold on the bastion. Velasco rushed to the breach with his troops and was mortally wounded during the ensuing hand-to-hand fighting. The Spanish forces fell back, leaving the British in control of the Morro fort. Velasco was transported back to Havana, but by 31 July, had died of his wounds. The British then occupied a position commanding the city of Havana and
6783-406: The Spanish governor, Admiral, and other military and civil officeholders were court-martialled and punished for their failures to conduct a better defense and for allowing the Spanish fleet present to fall intact into the hands of the British. Havana remained under British occupation until February 1763, when it was returned to Spain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, formally ending the war. On 11 June
6902-457: The Spanish had also acquired steam gunboats ( vapor ), which could easily overtake and destroy the native Moro warships. Aside from the Iranun and Banguingui pirates, other polities were also associated with maritime raiding. The Bugis sailors of South Sulawesi were infamous as pirates who used to range as far west as Singapore and as far north as the Philippines in search of targets for piracy. The Orang laut pirates controlled shipping in
7021-467: The Spanish overseas empire. It was clear to the Spanish authorities that their regular army in Cuba could not match the strength that the British army was able to concentrate. It was, therefore, necessary to form a disciplined colonial militia, with adequate weapons and training, supervised by experienced officers and non-commissioned officers , with an organisation and uniforms similar to the regulars. The regular garrison of about 3,200 would be backed by
7140-410: The Spanish ships in the city's harbor. In 1662, English privateer Christopher Myngs captured and briefly occupied Santiago de Cuba on the eastern part of the island to open up Cuba's protected trade with neighboring Jamaica . Nearly a century later, the British Royal Navy launched another invasion, capturing Guantánamo Bay in 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain. Edward Vernon ,
7259-412: The Straits of Malacca and the waters around Singapore, and the Malay and Sea Dayak pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in Borneo . In East Asia by the ninth century, populations centered mostly around merchant activities in coastal Shandong and Jiangsu . Wealthy benefactors including Jang Bogo established Silla Buddhist temples in
SECTION 60
#17327733971967378-428: The Tunisian coast were brutally treated without his knowledge. As Sardinians they were technically under British protection and the government sent Exmouth back to secure reparation. On August 17, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he bombarded Algiers. Both Algiers and Tunis made fresh concessions as a result. Securing uniform compliance with a total prohibition of slave-raiding, which
7497-436: The Venetian fleet would return to the Adriatic, the Narentines momentarily outcast their habits again, even signing a Treaty in Venice and baptising their Slavic pagan leader into Christianity. In 834 or 835 they broke the treaty and again they raided Venetian traders returning from Benevento. All of Venice's military attempts to punish them in 839 and 840 utterly failed. Later, they raided the Venetians more often, together with
7616-618: The Ward Line SS Morro Castle (1930) , passenger liner that burnt in 1934 See also [ edit ] Morro (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Morro Castle . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morro_Castle&oldid=985680394 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Ship disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
7735-533: The West), Kurtoglu (known as Curtogoli in the West), Kemal Reis , Salih Reis and Koca Murat Reis . A few Barbary corsairs, such as the Dutch Jan Janszoon and the English John Ward (Muslim name Yusuf Reis), were renegade European privateers who had converted to Islam. The Barbary pirates had a direct Christian counterpart in the military order of the Knights of Saint John that operated first out of Rhodes and after 1530 Malta , though they were less numerous and took fewer slaves. Both sides waged war against
7854-442: The advent of Islam and the colonial era , slaves became a valuable resource for trading with European, Arab, and Chinese slavers, and the volume of piracy and slave raids increased significantly. Numerous native peoples engaged in sea raiding; they include the Iranun and Balanguingui slavers of Sulu , the Iban headhunters of Borneo , the Bugis sailors of South Sulawesi , and the Malays of western Southeast Asia. Piracy
7973-407: The bay. Artillery batteries were brought up along the north side of the entrance channel from the Morro fort to La Cabana Hill, where they could be trained directly on the town. On 11 August, after Prado had rejected the demand for surrender sent to him by Albemarle, the British batteries opened fire on Havana. A total of 47 guns (15 × 32-pdrs, 32 × 24-pdrs), ten mortars, and five howitzers pounded
8092-418: The bay. Surprisingly, this hill had been left undefended by the Spanish army despite its well-known strategic importance. Charles III of Spain had earlier instructed Prado to fortify this hill, a task that he considered the most urgent of those relating to the fortifications. The task had been started, but no guns had been installed. Two days later a British detachment landed at Torreón de la Chorrera , on
8211-445: The city and the fleet went on, and Prado and his army obtained the honours of war on 13 August. Hevia neglected to burn his fleet, which fell intact in the hands of the British. The significant losses of men in the attack on Havana ended any possibility of an attack on Louisiana, and the French took advantage of the removal of so many troops from Canada to capture Newfoundland with a small force of fifteen hundred soldiers. Newfoundland
8330-429: The city as a new colonial governor and took control of the whole western part of the island. The arrival of the British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies , causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society. Though Havana, which had become the third-largest city in the Americas, was to enter an era of sustained development and closening ties with North America during this period,
8449-419: The city from a distance of 500–800 m. By the end of the day, Fort la Punta was silenced. Prado had no other choice left but to surrender. The next day, Prado was informed that there was only sufficient ammunition for a few more days. He made belated plans to remove the bullion in Havana and move to another part of the island, but the city was surrounded by it. Negotiations of the articles of capitulation of
8568-567: The city, el Morro protected the entrance of the harbor with a chain strung out across the water, known as the boom defense to the fort at La Punta . The Morro fortress shares its name with Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca in Santiago de Cuba and the Castillo de San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico . In this case, the Spanish "morro" means a rock visible from the sea and serves as
8687-630: The coasts of Armorica and Belgic Gaul . In the Roman province of Britannia, Saint Patrick was captured and enslaved by Irish pirates. The most widely recognized and far-reaching pirates in medieval Europe were the Vikings , seaborne warriors from Scandinavia who raided and looted mainly between the 8th and 12th centuries, during the Viking Age in the Early Middle Ages . They raided
8806-748: The coasts, rivers and inland cities of all Western Europe as far as Seville , which was attacked by the Norse in 844. Vikings also attacked the coasts of North Africa and Italy and plundered all the coasts of the Baltic Sea . Some Vikings ascended the rivers of Eastern Europe as far as the Black Sea and Persia. In the Late Middle Ages, the Frisian pirates known as Arumer Zwarte Hoop led by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama , fought against
8925-439: The control of Spain , the fortress was captured by the British in 1762 and returned to Spain under the Treaty of Paris (1763) a year later. The Morro Castle was the primary defense in the Havana harbor until La Cabaña was completed in 1774. Perched on the promontory on the opposite side of the harbor from Old Havana , it can be seen from miles as it dominates the entrance to the harbor. Built in 1589 in response to raids on
9044-470: The expected arrival of reinforcements from North America. The progress of siege works over the next few days allowed the British to begin the mining towards the right bastion of the Morro. Meanwhile, the now unopposed British artillery was daily hitting the Morro up to 600 times, causing some 60 casualties. Velasco now had no hope but to destroy British siege works. On 22 July, 1,300 regulars, seamen, and militia sallied from Havana in three columns and attacked
9163-750: The exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity , the Phoenicians , Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates. In the pre-classical era, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession; it apparently was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living". References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey , and abduction of women and children to be sold into slavery
9282-462: The family compact with France, resulting in a British declaration of war on Spain in January 1762, the British government decided to mount an attack on the critical Spanish fortress and naval base of Havana, to weaken the Spanish presence in the Caribbean and improve the security of its own North American colonies. A strong British naval force consisting of squadrons from Britain and the West Indies and
9401-541: The first person known to have been hanged, drawn and quartered , which would indicate that the then-ruling King Henry III took an especially severe view of this crime. The ushkuiniks were Novgorodian pirates who looted the cities on the Volga and Kama Rivers in the 14th century. As early as Byzantine times, the Maniots (one of Greece's toughest populations) were known as pirates. The Maniots considered piracy as
9520-452: The fortifications of the Morro. Since its arrival at Havana, the British army had heavily suffered from malaria and yellow fever and was now at half-strength. Since the hurricane season was approaching, Albemarle was now engaged in a race against time. He ordered the batteries to be rebuilt with the help of men of the fleet. Many 32-pounder guns were taken from the lower deck of several ships to equip these new batteries. By 17 July,
9639-520: The fortress from its landward side. The fort fell when the British successfully mined one of its bastions. When the British handed the island back in 1763 to Spain, the fortress at La Cabaña was built to prevent land attacks in the future. The Siege of Havana was a successful British siege against Spanish-ruled Havana that lasted from March to August 1762 as part of the Seven Years' War. After Spain abandoned its former policy of neutrality by signing
9758-493: The fortress. A plaque dedicated by the ambassador of the United Kingdom commemorates the 1762 siege, and a small memorial is located between two strong powder rooms in the northeast bastion. A small turret at the end of the wall offers views of the sea crashing onto the rocks 20 meters below and of the substantial dry moat. The opposite side of the moat holds more modern guns and cannons, La Bateria de Velasco, and offers
9877-716: The harbor by ship. The climactic scenes from The Big Boodle (1957) starring Errol Flynn were shot at Morro Castle in pre-Castro Cuba. During his life, the Castro regime imprisoned the Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990) at El Morro Castle for criticism of the government. The film version of Arenas's autobiography, Before Night Falls (2000), starring Javier Bardem , features scenes set in El Morro Castle prison. (A fortress in Mexico City doubled for
9996-455: The island during the 16th century. In Havana, the fortress of Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro was built to deter potential invaders, which included the English privateer Francis Drake , who sailed within sight of Havana harbor but did not disembark on the island. Havana's inability to resist invaders was dramatically exposed in 1628 when a Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plundered
10115-652: The lower decks, like the James Galley and Charles Galley , and oar-equipped sloops proved highly useful for pirate hunting, though they were not built in sufficient numbers to check piracy until the 1720s. The expansion of Muslim power through the Ottoman conquest of large parts of the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th and 16th century resulted in extensive piracy on sea trading. The so-called Barbary pirates began to operate out of North African ports in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco around 1500, preying primarily on
10234-463: The menacing Zheng Yi inherited the fleet of his cousin, captain Zheng Qi, whose death provided Zheng Yi with considerably more influence in the world of piracy. Zheng Yi and his wife, Zheng Yi Sao (who would eventually inherit the leadership of his pirate confederacy) then formed a pirate coalition that, by 1804, consisted of over ten thousand men. Their military might alone was sufficient to combat
10353-463: The military force of British and American troops it convoyed were able to approach Havana from a direction that neither the Spanish governor nor the Admiral expected and were able to trap the Spanish fleet in the Havana harbour and land its troops with relatively little resistance. The Spanish authorities decided on a strategy of delaying the British attack until the strength of the city's defenses and
10472-447: The most depleted brigades was transferred to North America, losing another 360 men within a month of arrival. Three ships of the line were lost either as a direct result of Spanish gunfire or severe damage received, which would cause their demise later. Shortly after the siege HMS Stirling Castle was declared unserviceable and was stripped and scuttled. HMS Marlborough sank in the Atlantic due to extensive damage received during
10591-476: The need for protection from violence. The system has been described as a "massive, multinational protection racket", the Christian side of which was not ended until 1798 in the Napoleonic Wars. The Barbary corsairs were quelled as late as the 1830s, effectively ending the last vestiges of counter-crusading jihad . Piracy off the Barbary coast was often assisted by competition among European powers in
10710-426: The new British batteries had progressively silenced most of Velasco's guns, leaving only two operational. With the absence of artillery cover, it became impossible for the Spanish troops to repair the damage inflicted on the Morro. Mackellar also resumed the construction of siege works to approach the fortress. With the army in such bad condition, work progressed rather slowly. The British army's only hope now resided in
10829-631: The offer could result in Spain losing Mexico and much of the South American mainland to the British. In 1781, General Bernardo de Gálvez , the Spanish governor of Louisiana , reconquered Florida for Spain with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban troops. The Morro Castle first saw action in 1762 under the command of Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla . The British expedition against Cuba under Lord Albemarle landed in Cojimar and attacked
10948-496: The officer in charge of Morro Castle, Luis Vicente de Velasco, was mortally wounded by a stray bullet. The capture of Morro Castle led to the eventual fall of the rest of the fortifications and the surrender of the city, the remaining garrison, and the naval forces present before the hurricane season began. The surrender of Havana led to substantial rewards for the British naval and military leaders and smaller amounts of prize money for other officers and men. Upon their return to Spain,
11067-500: The only way to run down raiders from the infamous corsair Moroccan port of Salé was by using a captured pirate vessel of the same type. Using oared vessels to combat pirates was common, and was even practiced by the major powers in the Caribbean. Purpose-built galleys, or hybrid sailing vessels, were built by the English in Jamaica in 1683 and by the Spanish in the late 16th century. Specially-built sailing frigates with oar-ports on
11186-533: The onset of seasonal rains inflicting tropical diseases would significantly reduce the size of the British force via disease, along with the start of hurricane season would force the British fleet to seek a safe anchorage. However, the city's main fortress, the Morro Castle, was overlooked by a hill that the governor had neglected to fortify; the British installed batteries there and bombarded the fortress daily with heavy shelling. The fortress eventually fell after
11305-708: The passes in the Alps . Moor pirates operated out of the Balearic Islands in the 10th century. From 824 to 961 Arab pirates in the Emirate of Crete raided the entire Mediterranean. In the 14th century, raids by Moor pirates forced the Venetian Duke of Crete to ask Venice to keep its fleet on constant guard. After the Slavic invasions of the former Roman province of Dalmatia in the 5th and 6th centuries,
11424-532: The place and the rapids at the Dnieper river effectively guarded the place from invasions of vengeful powers. The main target of the inhabitants of the Zaporizhian Sich who called themselves "Cossacks", were rich settlements at the Black Sea shores of Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate . By 1615 and 1625, Zaporozhian Cossacks had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of Istanbul , forcing
11543-465: The prison since the filmmakers were not allowed to film in Cuba.) The Cuban writer José Antonio Echeverría (1815-1885) published his only novel, Antonelli (1839), in the periodical La Cartera Cubana in three parts. A historical novel in the tradition of Walter Scott , Antonelli describes the love triangle between Antonelli , a Spanish soldier, and the planter's daughter they both love. Morro Castle
11662-508: The region. Jang Bogo had become incensed at the treatment of his fellow countrymen, who in the unstable milieu of late Tang often fell victim to coastal pirates or inland bandits. After returning to Silla around 825, and in possession of a formidable private fleet headquartered at Cheonghae ( Wando ), Jang Bogo petitioned the Silla king Heungdeok ( r. 826–836 ) to establish a permanent maritime garrison to protect Silla merchant activities in
11781-491: The respective enemies of their faith, and both used galleys as their primary weapons. Both sides also used captured or bought galley slaves to man the oars of their ships. The Muslims relied mostly on captured Christians, the Christians used a mix of Muslim slaves, Christian convicts and a small contingency of buonavoglie , free men who out of desperation or poverty had taken to rowing. Historian Peter Earle has described
11900-467: The royal treasury before the surrender. After a lengthy trial, Prado was found guilty and sentenced to death but was reprieved and died in prison. Hevia was sentenced to 10 years' house arrest and the loss of his office and titles but was later pardoned and reinstated: a leading official, Julián de Arriaga, was dismissed from office. Velasco's family was ennobled, and his son was created Marqués de Velasco del Morro, and Charles III decreed that there should be
12019-536: The same amount as Commodore Keppel, as the two shared a fifteenth part of the prize pool, as against the third shared by their commanders. Elliot was able to buy Bayley Park in East Sussex , which he altered and enlarged. Privates in the army received just over £4, and ordinary seamen rather less than £4 each. During the siege, the British had lost 2,764 killed, wounded, captured, or deserted, but by 18 October, they also had lost 4,708 dead from sickness. One of
12138-406: The sea upon the British miners in the ditch. At 2:00 am the next day, two Spanish schooners attacked the miners from the sea. Their attack was unsuccessful, and they had to withdraw. At 1:00 pm, the British finally detonated the mine. The debris of the explosion partly filled the ditch, but Albemarle judged it passable, and launched an assault, sending 699 picked men against the right bastion. Before
12257-417: The shipping of Christian powers, including massive slave raids at sea as well as on land. The Barbary pirates were nominally under Ottoman suzerainty , but had considerable independence to prey on the enemies of Islam. The Muslim corsairs were technically often privateers with support from legitimate, though highly belligerent, states. They considered themselves as holy Muslim warriors, or ghazis , carrying on
12376-501: The siege works surrounding the Morro. The British repelled the Spanish sortie, who thus withdrew to their lines, and the siege works were left relatively intact. On 24 July, Albemarle offered Velasco the opportunity to surrender, allowing him to write his terms of capitulation. Velasco answered that the issue would instead be settled by force of arms. Three days later, the reinforcements from North America led by Colonel Burton finally arrived. These reinforcements, who had been attacked by
12495-545: The siege, although Prado and several officials were not military officers. The commission placed most of the blame on Prado and Hevia, finding them to have failed to fortify the Cabana hill properly and to have abandoned it too easily, to have crippled the Spanish fleet by sinking blockships that prevented the remainder taking action against the British and surrendered them intact rather than burning them; they had not mounted any significant counterattacks and, finally, had not removed
12614-458: The siege, and HMS Temple was lost while returning to Britain for repairs. Charles III appointed a commission of generals to try Prado, and others considered culpable for the loss of Havana on their return to Spain. Prado, Hevia, and nine other military and civil officials were accused of treason, and their trial was, in effect, a court-martial. However, it examined their actions during Prado's governorship and tactical decisions taken during
12733-468: The slave trade and was seeking to induce other countries to do likewise. This led to complaints from states which were still vulnerable to the corsairs that Britain's enthusiasm for ending the trade in African slaves did not extend to stopping the enslavement of Europeans and Americans by the Barbary States. In order to neutralise this objection and further the anti-slavery campaign, in 1816 Lord Exmouth
12852-595: The tradition of fighting the incursion of Western Christians that had begun with the First Crusade late in the 11th century. Coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and islands in the Mediterranean were frequently attacked by Muslim corsairs, and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. After 1600, the Barbary corsairs occasionally entered
12971-606: The troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with some success. Toward the end of the 9th century, Moorish pirate havens were established along the coast of southern France and northern Italy. In 846 Moor raiders sacked the extra muros Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome. In 911, the bishop of Narbonne was unable to return to France from Rome because the Moors from Fraxinet controlled all
13090-486: The two sides of the Christian-Muslim Mediterranean conflict as "mirror image[s] of maritime predation, two businesslike fleets of plunderers set against each other". This conflict of faith in the form of privateering, piracy and slave raiding generated a complex system that was upheld/financed/operated on the trade in plunder and slaves that was generated from a low-intensive conflict, as well as
13209-502: The west side of the harbour. Meanwhile, Colonel Patrick Mackellar , an engineer, oversaw the siegeworks' construction against the Morro. Since digging trenches was impossible, he resolved to erect breastworks instead. He planned to mine towards a bastion of the Morro once his siege works had reached the ditch and to create a runway across this ditch with the rubble produced by his mining activities. By 22 June, four British batteries, totaling twelve heavy guns and 38 mortars, opened fire on
13328-401: Was added in 1846. The cannons around the fort are now severely rusted, but the walls are well-preserved. The fort has central barracks up to four stories high. A small underwater archeology exhibition is also located here. Noteworthy are the old latrines and their chute into the sea, as are the two sets of doors and the drawbridge mechanism. The current harbor master's office is still housed in
13447-472: Was also practiced by foreign seafarers on a smaller scale, including Chinese, Japanese, and European traders, renegades, and outlaws. The volume of piracy and raids were often dependent on the ebb and flow of trade and monsoons , with pirate season (known colloquially as the "Pirate Wind") starting from August to September. Slave raids were of high economic importance to the Muslim Sultanates in
13566-575: Was common. By the era of Classical Greece , piracy was looked upon as a "disgrace" to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympus in Lycia brought impoverishment. Among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea , the Illyrians caused many conflicts with
13685-515: Was later scuttled, forcing them to withdraw. Meanwhile, the bombardment by the land artillery was far more effective. By the end of the day, only three Spanish guns were still effective on the side of the Morro facing the British batteries. The next day, however, British breastworks around the Morro caught fire, and the batteries were burned down, destroying the product of much of the work undertaken since mid-June. Velasco immediately capitalised on this event, remounting many guns and repairing breaches in
13804-766: Was recaptured in the Battle of Signal Hill on September 15, 1762. On 14 August, the British entered the city. They possessed the most important harbour in the Spanish West Indies , military equipment, 1,828,116 Spanish pesos, and merchandise valued around 1,000,000. Furthermore, they had seized nine ships of the line in Havana harbour, representing one-fifth of the strength of the Spanish Navy, namely Aquilón (74), Conquistador (74), Reina (70), San Antonio (64), Tigre (70), San Jenaro (60), América (60), Infante (74) and Soberano (74), together with
13923-437: Was sent to secure new concessions from Tripoli , Tunis , and Algiers , including a pledge to treat Christian captives in any future conflict as prisoners of war rather than slaves and the imposition of peace between Algiers and the kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily . On his first visit he negotiated satisfactory treaties and sailed for home. While he was negotiating, a number of Sardinian fishermen who had settled at Bona on
14042-666: Was so massive that the word for "pirate" in Malay became lanun , an exonym of the Iranun people. The economy of the Sulu sultanates was largely run by slaves and the slave trade. Male captives of the Iranun and the Banguingui were treated brutally, even fellow Muslim captives were not spared. They were usually forced to serve as galley slaves on the lanong and garay warships of their captors. Female captives, however, were usually treated better. There were no recorded accounts of rapes, though some were starved for discipline. Within
14161-467: Was traditionally of central importance to the North African economy, presented difficulties beyond those faced in ending attacks on ships of individual nations, which had left slavers able to continue their accustomed way of life by preying on less well-protected peoples. Algiers renewed its slave-raiding, though on a smaller scale. Measures to be taken against the city's government were discussed at
#195804