150 ISLAM AT WAR
Only Uluch Ali escaped to Istanbul with most of his flotilla. The Turks
lost 210 ships: 130 captured and 80 sunk. The Holy League lost only
twelve galleys. The Muslims lost 15,000 fighting men to the 7,500 lost
by the Christians. To balance the Christian loss, though, some 2,000 galley
slaves were freed from the Turks. Among the ships that sank, surely an-
other 8,000–10,000 Christian galley slaves also drowned.
Though Don John wanted to follow up his victory by moving into the
Dardanelles, the allied fleet soon fell into quibbling and the Venetians and
Spanish stymied the proposal. Instead, a pointless and inconsequential
expedition was made to Tunis.
The Battle of Lepanto is frequently considered a decisive battle. It was
certainly a costly one. The Turks lost the cream of their naval personnel
and most of their best ships. The vessels were all replaced within two
years, but the manpower loss left the Ottoman navy at an increasing dis-
advantage. Losses aside, some elements of decisiveness in the fight be-
come clear. It certainly gave the European powers a breathing space.
During that time they would accomplish little in territories lost or won,
but they would continue to increase their technical lead. The larger po-
litical organizations such as the Holy League would continue forming to
combat Turkey, and eventually the modern western monarchies would
solidify and show themselves perfectly impervious to the feudal armies
and navies of the Porte.
It is possible to look at the galleasses that fought at Lepanto and see in
them the fall of Turkish sea power, and also, with a small extension of
the imagination, the end of Turkish dominance in world affairs. The gal-
leasses were developed to use wind power as their primary propulsion.
Their high sides suited the harsh weather in the Atlantic and English
Channel. These two necessities proved virtues at a time when naval artil-
lery was gaining efficiency and large ships with high sides were highly
adaptable as gun platforms. The manpower-intensive Mediterranean gal-
ley, unfit for long voyages or heavy seas, would be useless in the dawning
age of exploration. The great sailing ships with their guns and huge cargo
capacity would give European powers a decisive lead in the conquest and
colonization of the unknown parts of the world. Turkey, the leading Mus-
lim power, would not catch up, nor even come close.
After Lepanto the history of Muslim sea power records few significant
events. There were recurring episodes of North African piracy, with which
various American and European squadrons dealt with little difficulty. The
British and French destroyed Mehmet Ali’s Turkish/Egyptian fleet at Na-
varino Bay in 1821, in what was more a massacre than a battle. Occa-
sionally a Russian fleet would tangle with a Turkish force, and the Battle