On This Day 20 June

[Coog]

The Sack of Baltimore took place on June 20, 1631, when the village of Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland, was attacked by North African pirates from the North African Barbary Coast. The attack was the biggest single attack by the Barbary pirates on Ireland or Britain. The attack was led by a Dutch captain turned pirate, Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, also known as Murad Reis the Younger. Murad's force was led to the village by a man called Hackett, the captain of a fishing boat he had captured earlier, in exchange for his freedom. Hackett was subsequently hanged from the clifftop outside the village for his conspiracy.

Murad's crew, made up of Dutchmen, Algerians and Ottoman Turks, launched their covert attack on the remote village on June 20th 1631. They captured 108 English settlers, who worked a pilchard industry in the village, and some local Irish people. The attack was focused on the area of the village known to this day as the Cove. The villagers were put in irons and taken to a life of slavery in North Africa. Some prisoners were destined to live out their days as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the seclusion of the Sultan's harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace as laborers. At most three of them ever saw Ireland again.

[Coog]

While Great Britain was at war with Spain in 1740, Commodore George Anson, in the 60-gun Centurion, led a squadron of eight ships on a mission to disrupt or capture Spain's Pacific possessions. Returning to England in 1744 by way of China and thus completing a circumnavigation, the voyage was notable for the capture of an Acapulco galleon but also horrific losses to disease with only 188 men of the original 1854 surviving.

On 20 June 1743 the galleon Nuestra Señora de la Covadonga was sighted off the Phillipines. At noon, the Centurion manoeuvered to cut off the galleon's escape to land and at one o'clock crossed in front of the Spanish vessel at very close range allowing all her big guns to fire at their target while preventing the Spaniards from returning fire. Meanwhile, marksmen stationed up the masts picked off their counterparts in the masts opposite, the galleon's officers on the deck and those manning the guns. The ships drifted further apart but the Centurion was still able to fire grapeshot across the galleon's deck and smash cannon balls into her hull.

After ninety minutes, the Spanish surrendered and it was all over. Anson sent Philip Saumarez and 10 men over and they found a ghastly scene with the decks of the Neustra Señora de Covadonga "covered with carcasses, entrails and dismembered limbs". On the Centurion one man had died, two more would later of their wounds and 17 had been injured. The ship had been hit by perhaps 30 shots. On the Covadonga, the grim figures were 67 dead, 84 wounded and 150 shots. It was carrying 1,313,843 pieces of eight and 35,682 ounces of silver.

The galleon itself at 700 tons was smaller than the Centurion but was shockingly unprepared for attack. There were 44 cannon aboard but 12 of those were packed away. The rest were only 6 to 12 pounders and were mounted on exposed decks. There were also 28 swivel guns but since the men on the Centurion made no attempt to board these were of little concern and in any case, those manning them would have been killed by the marksmen or the grapeshot.

Anson needed to get away as soon as possible in case any Spanish ships appeared and had decided to return to Macau. He sent another 40 men to the galleon and by nightfall, the most urgent repairs had been completed. Three hundred prisoners were transferred to the Centurion and forced into the hold with two hatches left open to provide some air but four swivel guns pointed at each to prevent escape. They were limited to one pint of water each per day and though none died on the trip to Macau, conditions below were appalling.

They arrived in Macau on 11 July.

[Anav]

Also today:
1813 - Fifteen U.S. gunboats engage three British ships in Hampton Roads, Va.
1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.

[Coog]

Also today:

1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.

1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.

The era of sail was slowly coming to an end.