Bombardment of Algiers (1784)

2nd Bombardment of Algiers
Part of the Spanish-Algerian war (1775-1785)
Algiers' harbour. Engraving from 1690.
Date 12 July 1784 Location Algiers, Regency of Algiers Result Algerian victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Spain Kingdom of Sicily Kingdom of Naples Malta Portugal Tuscany	Regency of Algiers
Commanders and leaders
Antonio Barceló	Muhammad V Salah Bey
Strength
9 ships of the line 11 frigates 14 xebecs 90 smaller warships[3]	4,000 volunteers 70 galiots and gunboats[3]
Casualties and losses
1 felucca sunk 1 gunboat destroyed 53 killed 64 wounded[4]	65 galiots and gunboats destroyed[3][5]

The 2nd Bombardment of Algiers took place between 12 and 21 July 1784. was a joint military operation between Portugal, Malta, Naples, Sicily, Tuscany and Spain carried out by Antoine Barcelo in 1784 after its failure the previous year, which was the main base of the Barbary corsairs, with the aim of forcing them to interrupt their activities. Heavy losses were inflicted on the joint Allied ships, which led them to make a treaty with Algeria. Only the joint ships destroyed a few houses. This caused the ships to withdraw immediately.

Background[]

The operation is actually a large coalition of ships from Spain, Portugal, Malta, Naples and Tuscany that forms a squadron of 130 ships. Deceptively oriented ships do little damage to the city, hardly hitting a few homes. Algeria's defense is more effective and the port's batteries are burning intensely.It ended with a Spanish failure against the defenses of the city of Algiers and the return of the squadron to Spain to disperse,^[6][7] along with the failure of the 1775 and 1783 expeditions, the operation put Spain in a difficult negotiating position in return. The Algerian government After all the Spanish campaigns knew a disastrous outcome,^[8] the Algerians used the term Spagnolata in Lingua franca to refer to a poorly designed military project, carried out without art and without energy^[9].Thus the da'i Muhammad Ben Othman demands compensation of 1 000 000 pesos for the conclusion of a peace agreement in 1785. After that, the first period of negotiations (1785-1787) opens for a permanent peace between Algeria and Madrid.^[10]

Bombardment[]

Portrait of Antonio Barceló. 1848 copy from an 18th-century original that was at Palma de Mallorca's Town Hall.

The Spanish admiral left Cartagena on June 28, 1784, and appeared before Algiers on July 9, at the head of one hundred and thirty ships large and small, among which eleven ships were noted from Naples and eight from Malta. The war fleet consisted of 26 ships, 30 bombards, 24 gunners and 21 galiots. It was a real crusade: in a brief of June 18, the Pope granted his plenary indulgences and the blessing "in articulo mortis" to all the fighters of the armada.

The weather remained bad until the 12th, when the fire started at eight in the morning; the Algerian gunners boldly came out, entered the fight at half gun range, and forced the enemy to withdraw. The Portuguese division arrived in the evening and took part in its combat post; but hostilities were interrupted on the 13th and 14th by the state of the sea. On the 15th, the Reis attacked first, at six o'clock in the morning, and still remained masters of the battlefield. On the 16th, 17th and 18th there was a series of small fights; in the last of three days, the knights of Malta stood out for their brilliant courage, descending on the pier amid a terrible cannonade to set the bomb rafts on fire. On the 19th, we only fought for an hour; on the 21st, 67 longboats from Algiers left the port at eight o'clock, launched an action which lasted until noon and ended to their advantage; it was rough and bloody; two thousand projectiles were exchanged on each side. In the evening, the admiral called the council of war together and proposed to conduct a general attack on the port and the city; it met with almost unanimous opposition, and the order to leave was given on the 22nd. On the evening of the 23rd, the entire fleet had left, having used in vain 3379 balls, 10 680 balls, 2145 grenades and 401 boxes of grape.

Aftermath[]

This expedition marks the end of the very bad Spanish struggle against the guardianship of Algeria: Spain has to conclude with Algeria and pay reparations for the damage done to Algeria by the expedition of 1775 and the bombardments of 1783 and 1784.^[11]

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