THE SWORD AND THE SEA 149barring Suleiman’s current offensive—had fallen after a long defense.
Bragadino, the governor of the city, had been flayed alive and his soldiers
massacred. Word of Bragadino’s horrible death spread quickly in the fleet
and enraged Christian sailors and soldiers.
On October 7 the Christian fleet entered the bay of Lepanto and both
fleets prepared for battle. Upon seeing the Christian fleet, Ali Pasha sent
word to the lower deck of his galley that if his Christian slave oarsmen
served him well that day he would liberate them. He then organized his
fleet and began moving toward the Christians.
The Holy League fleet was divided into squadrons. The center, com-
manded by Don John in person, contained some sixty galleys. The Chris-
tian right and left, under Gianandrea Doria and Admiral Barbarigo
respectively, each contained sixty ships. Two reserve flotillas, under Don
Alvaro de Bazan and Don Juan de Cardona, sailed behind them. Leading
the entire armada was a secret weapon provided by the Venetians. A group
of six galleasses, large sailing ships with only a few oars for maneuvering,
carried immense batteries of heavy guns. The limited number of oars made
them quite clumsy but left the sides of the vessels free to mount the big
guns. These galleasses were the crude forerunners of the wooden sailing
ships that would dominate the world for the next 250 years. The Turks
had nothing like them, and nothing to answer their smashing cannonades.
The Ottoman fleet was also split into four squadrons and the center,
under Ali Pasha, sailed directly toward the Christian center. The right
wing, under Mehmed Suluk, faced against Barbarigo’s squadron and
Uluch Ali, with another Ottoman squadron, moved to the south with the
intention of outflanking Gianandrea Doria’s squadron and attacking them
in the rear. The Turkish reserve, about ninety galleys in three lines, stood
behind Ali’s battle fleet. Both fleets presented a battle line of about three
miles in length. The flagships of Don John of Austria and Ali Pasha headed
straight for each other.
As the fleets closed on each other the galleasses blasted away, but the
Turkish galleys were too many to be stopped by fire alone, and soon the
main fleets smashed into each other. As the galleys lock into each other,
arquebus and arrow took a toll, and it then became essentially an infantry
fight.
Don John of Austria led the boarding party onto the Turkish flagship
and soon overwhelmed it. During the fight Ali Pasha was struck down by
an arquebus shot, and a Spanish soldier, seeing him fall, pounced on him
and cut off his head. After three hours of frantic combat throughout the
combined fleets, 32,000 Turkish and Christian soldiers and sailors were
dead.