+2021-11-01 Military History

In 1571 Christian and Muslim fleets metoff the
coast of Greece, rowing into b attle onelast time
By Michael D. Hull
Ottoman captain Uluç Ali attempts to tow the
captured galley of the Knights of Malta away
from the main battle at Lepanto, flying the
knights’ flag from his mainmast in contempt.
40 MILITARY HISTORY NOVEMBER 2021
41
The yataghan, a short sword used by elite
Turkish Janissaries, had a single-edged,
recurved blade and a hilt with no guard.
Late 16th century Europe was rent by political and reli-
gious divisions. With the dissolution of the Roman empire
and the coming of the Reformation, Christendom—once
centered on the Roman Catholic Church—had fractured
into conflicting states and denominations. By contrast,
the Islamic world was under the dominion of the Ottoman empire, then at the peak of its strength.
Early that century the Turks probed Europe’s eastern frontiers. After ransacking much of the Balkans,
the Muslims threatened Vienna and seized then separate
Buda and Pest. Ottoman galleys raided the
coasts of Italy, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia,
captured Rhodes, besieged Malta and invaded Cyprus. Finally, after an appeal by
the Venetian Senate, Pius V started organizing resistance to the Muslim empire.
On March 7, 1571, the pontiff sponsored
creation of the Holy League, comprising the
papal states, Spain, Venice, Genoa, Tuscany,
Savoy, Urbino, Parma and the Knights of
Malta. Though its formation came too late
to forestall the Ottoman capture of Cyprus,
that spring Pius ordered its combined fleet
to sail for Greece and seek out the Turkish
armada, reportedly holed up at Lepanto.
In use by the Ottoman
empire by the 16th
Following up on Ottoman gains in the
century and worn by
Mediterranean, Sultan Selim II was assemTurkish participants in
bling the men, ships and materiel necessary
the Battle of Lepanto,
to sack Rome. The Urbs Aeterna (“Eternal
the çiçakk (pronounced
City”) was viewed as ripe for plunder. The
chichakk) featured a
conical, spiked skull,
pope feared that if Rome fell, the rest of Eucheekpieces (missing
rope would surely follow. Regardless, Portufrom this example) and
gal and the Holy Roman empire (Germany,
a chain mail neck guard.
Italy, Burgundy and Bohemia) shunned the
pontiff ’s alliance, while distant England and France
showed no interest in opposing the Turks. Though chronically at odds, Venice and Spain were the two leading
Christian naval powers in the Mediterranean.
Turkish Çiçak
42 MILITARY HISTORY NOVEMBER 2021
Answering the papal summons, the member states of
the Holy League dispatched fleets, which assembled in
the harbor at Messina, Sicily. The commander of the armada was 24-year-old John of Austria, the illegitimate son
of Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and
German singer Barbara Blomberg. At the time of the invasion John’s half-brother ruled Spain as Philip II. The pope
had picked the blue-eyed, fair-haired “crownless prince”
to lead the often fractious league because he sensed John
was, as historian Jack Beeching put it, “someone who in
council would rise above pettiness and envy, who in battle
would lead without flinching.” A gallant campaigner on
both land and sea, John had put down a bloody 1568–70
uprising by Christianized Moors in the Spanish Albujerras.
That said, he now faced a far more formidable opponent.
“Charles V gave you life,” Pius told John upon the latter’s
commissioning. “I will give you honor and greatness.”
All that summer of 1571 the Christian fleet made its preparations at Messina. It mustered 206 galleys—long, flatbottomed craft each mounting a projecting bow spur
designed to ride over and break an enemy vessel’s oars.
The larger galleys carried cannons in their bows. Venice
furnished 109 galleys, Spain 49, Genoa 27, the papal
states seven, Tuscany five, and Savoy and the Knights of
Malta three each. Privately owned ships in the Spanish
service rounded out the galleys. The Venetians also provided six sluggish floating fortresses known as galleasses.
Steep-sided, 160 feet long and powered by 50 oars, each
carried a contingent of musketeers and/or bowmen
and upward of 30 cannons. Venetian, Spanish, Genoese,
Portuguese and papal crews manned 76 smaller vessels.
John had about 80,000 men under his command, including nearly 50,000 seamen and oarsmen and 30,000
troops, two-thirds of whom were in Spanish service.
The soldiers wore light armor and carried swords. Each
was armed with a bow, a harquebus or the latter’s heavier
variant, the musket. Manning the oars were merce-
PREVIOUS SPREAD: TONY BRIAN, FROM LEPANTO 1571 BY ANGUS KONSTAM (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING); THIS PAGE, TOP: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART; LEFT: ROYAL ARMOURIES
C
enturies before the great sea battles of Trafalgar, Jutland, Midway and Leyte Gulf a momentous naval
engagement temporarily united Christendom and ended Muslim domination of the Mediterranean
Sea. A turning point in naval history, the 1571 Battle of Lepanto was waged across a 5-mile front in
the Gulf of Patras, west of the Ottoman-held Greek port of Lepanto (present-day Nafpaktos). The
furious and sanguineous encounter pitted the fleet of Pope Pius V’s Holy League against a superior
Turkish armada under Ottoman Grand Admiral Ali Pasha. As decisive as it proved on a strategic
level, Lepanto marked the swan song of the war galley, as the sailing vessels that fought alongside
their oar-powered sisters were the wave of the future.
Marco
Antonio
Colonna
Ali Pasha
Selim II
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, VIENNA; PRISMA ARCHIVO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); AGA KHAN MUSEUM
John of
Austria
naries, Muslim captives and convicts promised release
on victory.
Ali Pasha’s larger Ottoman fleet comprised 222 galleys,
more than 50 swift galliots (small oared vessels) and a
number of smaller vessels. Aboard were some 50,000 seamen and oarsmen and more than 34,000 soldiers. Some
15,000 of the oarsmen were Christians captured at sea or
during shore raids. They, too, had a chance at freedom—
were John’s fleet victorious. Among the Turkish troops
were elite contingents of plumed, booted slaves known as
Janissaries. Selected in childhood from among Christian
prisoners, these Islamic converts were armed with bows,
short sabers and harquebuses. Established in the 14th
century, the Janissary corps represented modern Europe’s
first standing infantry.
By mid-September the Holy League fleet was ready to
sail from Messina. Pius V sent John a papal legate to bless
the fleet and a standard to fly from the masthead of the
admiral’s flagship, Real. Sporting a blue background, the
woven ensign depicted the crucified Jesus Christ supported by the coats of arms of the Holy League members.
The Spanish ships bore the coats of arms of Aragon and
Castile, while the Venetian craft each displayed the winged
Lion of St. Mark, symbolizing the patron saint of Venice.
Assigned to the papal galleys were 30 cross-bearing
Capuchin friars. The perceptive pontiff believed his seamen and soldiers would fight bravely if chaplains went
into battle beside them. Leading the friars was Father
Sebastiano
Venier
Anselm of Pietramolara, a venturesome former cavalryman. Other fleet padres included a half dozen Jesuits
aboard the Spanish vessels and a scattering of Dominicans and Theatines.
At dawn on September 16, despite the risk of seasonal
storms, the fleet weighed anchor and eased out of Messina harbor, John’s flagship leading the way. Standing on
the end of the jetty, surrounded by robed clergy, the papal
legate blessed each passing vessel. By midmorning the
Sultan Selim II was assembling
the men, ships and materiel
necessary to sack Rome
Strait of Messina was filled with billowing sails and fluttering pennants as the armada set a course to round the
Calabrian “toe” of the Italian peninsula and continue on
a northeasterly bearing.
Three days later, while the fleet sheltered from a storm
at the entrance to the Gulf of Taranto, its commanders
received a disquieting report. It seemed the Turkish fleet
was dispersing and might never confront them. That
night, however, a meteor flashed across the sky, lighting
up the surface of the sea before bursting into three fading
trails. The Christian admirals took it as a hopeful portent.
43
A 17th century painting by Jan Peeters the Elder depicts the opening clash
at Lepanto, though his rendering of the galleys on both sides is incorrect.
The Muslim fleet stretched from
coast to coast, with Ali Pasha’s
flagship front and center
soldiers discovered the Turks had plundered local villages
and desecrated their churches. Before leaving harbor, the
fleet commanders embarked 4,000 troops from the Corfu
garrison and gathered in formal council one last time.
Weighing anchor, the Christian armada sailed southward against strong headwinds toward the Gulf of Patras.
At the back of the gulf lay a connecting strait to the Gulf
of Lepanto guarded by the namesake fortified harbor of
Lepanto. There, while the Turkish fleet rested and reprovisioned, Ali Pasha and his commanders debated the
best course of action. Meanwhile, winds and heavy fog
again forced John’s fleet to hole up, this time in a protected harbor just outside the Gulf of Patras. On the eve-
44 MILITARY HISTORY NOVEMBER 2021
ning of October 5 a Turkish informant—likely a double
agent—reported to Christian commanders that the Ottoman force had been reduced to 100 galleys, its sailors
stricken by a plague. In fact, within 24 hours the enemy
fleet would venture out from Lepanto in search of battle.
At 2 a.m. on Sunday morning October 7, the Holy League
fleet weighed anchor once more and threaded its way
south between the islets and shoals of western Greece.
The sea was choppy, and a southwesterly wind blew in
the faces of John’s seamen.
As dawn broke and the Christian vanguard rounded
the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, John asked that Mass
be celebrated throughout the fleet. Before the priests had
finished granting the sailors and soldiers absolution,
watchmen in Real’s maintop sighted two distant sails,
soon four, then eight. Within minutes the entire Turkish
armada—hurried westward by a favorable wind—was visible on the horizon, bearing down on the Christian fleet.
Clambering over the side of his flagship into a light
galley, John sailed across the line of 64 ships in his center
squadron to encourage his seamen and soldiers. “My children, you have come to fight the battle of the cross—to
conquer or to die!” he cried out while holding aloft a crucifix. “But whether you are to die or conquer, do your duty
this day, and you will secure a glorious immortality!” He
then returned to Real. Powered by 70 oars and manned by
400 oarsmen and an equal number of troops, his flagship
was at the heart of the Christian battle line. Kneeling at its
bow, the commander prayed for victory, while officers and
THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: HERITAGE IMAGES (AKG IMAGES, 2)
On September 24, after clearing the peninsular “heel”
of Salento, John’s ships steered eastward across the churning mouth of the Adriatic Sea toward the Greek island of
Corfu. New missives brought word the Ottoman fleet had
not dispersed, but had raided Corfu and was headed back
to port at Lepanto. Regardless, stormy weather forced the
Christian fleet to shelter in the lee of the islands off northwestern Greece. When the skies cleared, they sailed into
Corfu harbor. Going ashore to forage for food and water,
men across the fleet did the same. Aboard the dozen papal
galleys Capuchin friars moved among the tense oarsmen
and soldiers, promising each man a plenary indulgence
from the pope in exchange for fighting for the faith. Each
Christian had been handed a rosary before leaving Messina.
The Turkish battle line was 3,000 feet longer than that
of the Christians and spanned the entrance to the gulf.
John’s force faced a further disadvantage as it struggled
through mist and stiff headwinds. The Turkish sailors and
soldiers sought to intimidate their foe with defiant yells,
shots and clashing gongs. Amid the clamor the Holy
League vessels held their fire, and an ominous silence
followed as the armadas closed on one another.
Onetime cavalryman Father Anselm grew alarmed,
realizing that in terms of strength and numbers he and his
fellow Christians faced a real danger of defeat. Clutching
his crucifix, he prayed to the Virgin Mary, beseeching
her to intercede. According to the chronicler Boverius,
the Madonna suddenly appeared in the sky above John’s
fleet, gazed down with kindly eyes and blessed it. At that
moment the wind shifted in the Christians’ favor.
Both sides relied on the slave labor of galley oarsmen
to keep their ships in motion. Chained to benches belowdecks in filthy, close-quarters conditions, they could expect slow death from either disease or beatings but faced
immediate death were the galleys to sink. As the Muslim
fleet lost momentum on a waning breeze, galley masters
whipped their oarsmen into action. Meanwhile, John
reportedly ordered galley slaves and convicts throughout the Christian fleet unshackled and issued swords or
pikes to use in the anticipated ship-to-ship fighting.
Along John’s battle line crewmen shook out lateen
sails that quickly filled. On the Christian left were 53
galleys under Agostino Barbarigo, a soft-spoken and
popular Venetian admiral. Leading from the center was
John, supported by the able papal commander Marco
Antonio Colonna and 75-year-old Venetian admiral
Sebastiano Venier, a scarred veteran warrior. Following
directly astern were the 38 galleys of the reserve squadron
led by Spanish admiral Álvaro de Bazán, the Marquess
of Santa Cruz. Commanding 53 galleys on the Christian
right was Giovanni Andrea Doria, great-nephew of the
legendary Genoese admiral Andrea Doria.
Before them the Muslim fleet stretched from coast to
coast, with Ali Pasha’s flagship Sultana front and center,
directly opposite John’s Real. Each Ottoman squadron
comprised some 60 galleys, while a smaller reserve
brought up the rear.
As at the 31 BC Battle of Actium—fought scarcely 50
miles to the north, albeit 16 centuries earlier—the opposing fleets were arrayed three squadrons abreast, the
vessels in each group also in line abreast. Thus the armadas drew together.
Although naval convention precluded flagships from
engaging an enemy, Real and Sultana unflinchingly led
A map of the battle depicts the combatants’ initial disposition in the
Gulf of Patras, the Christian fleet (at left) facing that of the Muslims.
from the center. While still several miles distant, the Turkish flagship fired a gun in salute, breaking the silence.
A gun aboard Real answered. A second Turkish shot
echoed, and another Christian cannon replied. The battle
lines slowly rowed together until about 500 yards apart
and then burst forward to engage.
At that very hour, period chroniclers write,
Tactical
Takeaways
Pius V was conferring with financial advisers at
the Vatican when suddenly the pontiff stopped, Weather is neutral.
opened a window and stared at the sky. “This Contrary winds and
rough seas bedeviled
is no time for business,” he told his treasurer. both sides at Lepanto.
“Go and give thanks to God, for our fleet is The best captains used
about to meet the Turks, and God will give us the conditions to their
tactical advantage.
the victory.” Pius then knelt in prayer.
Speed matters.
More than 500 miles to the southeast in the The largest vessels
Gulf of Patras the Christians hoped to shatter on both sides boasted
the Ottoman line with their big galleasses, heavier guns and
while the Turks, fearing their light galleys carried more troops,
would be mauled in a head-on confrontation, but lighter and faster
ships often posed the
planned to outflank the Christian right and greatest threat.
left, then fall on John’s fleet from the rear.
Don’t waste victory.
Bristling with guns but too heavy to maneu- The Holy League’s
ver swiftly, four of the six Venetian galleasses failure to follow the win
had been towed by galleys to fixed positions at Lepanto with coordinated land action left
1,000 yards forward of the Christian right and intact Muslim power
center. The two on the right could not be de- in the Mediterranean.
ployed in time for the opening cannonades,
which resounded across the gulf around noon. Wherever
the advancing Turks were forced to maneuver around the
galleasses, they took severe losses from the big ships’
45
The Last Great
Galley Battle
O
n Sunday morning Oct. 7, 1571, nearly 500 ships crewed by
100,000 sailors and oarsmen and carrying more than 60,000
soldiers closed for battle in the Gulf of Patras on the west coast
of Greece. The opposing combatants of the Christian Holy League
and Muslim Ottoman empire had plenty of time to maneuver, as
their respective fleets comprised almost entirely rowed galleys, dating from
the earliest days of maritime warfare. Pope Pius V had sponsored formation
of the Holy League to address Ottoman encroachment in Eastern Europe
and throughout the Mediterranean by Sultan Selim II, who contemplated an
attack on Rome itself. The Holy League fleet under John of Austria had sailed
too late to forestall the fall of Cyprus, but waiting for the Christians just
outside the Ottoman-held port of Lepanto was Ali Pasha’s Turkish fleet. MH
Big-gunned
Galleasses
vs. Flankers
John hoped to shatter the Ottoman line of 272 galleys and galliots using his six big Venetian galleasses,
four of which were towed out ahead of the Holy League line of 206 galleys. Ali Pasha saw the danger and
sent Uluç Ali, on the Turkish left, on a wide sweep to outflank the Christian right under Giovanni Andrea
Doria. The Holy League reserve squadron under the Marquess of Santa Cruz plugged the gap between
Doria and John. On the Christian left Agostino Barbarigo drove the Turks into the nearshore shallows.
46 MILITARY HISTORY NOVEMBER 2021
Grounded,
Sunk and
Captured
As the fleets closed on one another, and the opposing captains put their galleys’ rams to use, the battle
devolved into a melee of ship-to-ship fights involving harquebusiers, musketeers and sword-wielding
boarding parties. At the heart of the battle soldiers aboard John’s flagship Real fought off boarders from
Ali Pasha’s flagship Sultana. Finally, Capitana, the flagship of papal commander Marco Antonio Colonna,
rammed Sultana, and Colonna’s harquebusiers shot down Ali Pasha. All that remained was the mop-up.
MAPS BY STEVE WALKOWIAK, SWMAPS.COM
47
broadsides. The floating bastions did break the enemy
lines, but not decisively. Thirty minutes later ship-to-ship
skirmishes erupted as the opposing fleets, each stretched
out some 5 miles, swung together.
On the right of the Christian line the overcautious
Doria was nearly outflanked in the gap that had opened
between his squadron and the center. But his galleys and
those of the reserve combined to deliver devastating fire
at the waterline of enemy vessels, sinking some with a
single volley. Meanwhile, on the left Barbarigo’s galleys
took the fight into the very shallows to thwart Turkish
attempts to outflank them. On lifting his visor to be better
heard, the Venetian commander was mortally wounded
by an arrow to the left eye. By 1 p.m. the main bodies of
the opposing armadas were fully engaged. Galley bow
guns boomed, and the air filled with smoke, flame and
the shouts and screams of fighting and dying men.
The battle became a general melee as galleys rammed
one another and boarding parties struggled with opposing crews on slippery, bloody decks. The confused action
raged for hours. The Holy League ships poured cannon
fire into the Turkish galleys at point-blank range. The
accompanying volleys of the harquebusiers and musketeers were particularly devastating, clearing the fight-
48 MILITARY HISTORY NOVEMBER 2021
ing decks of many an Ottoman vessel before they could
be boarded.
The hottest fighting raged between the opposing flagships as Sultana, carrying 300 Janissary harquebusiers
and 100 archers, bore down on Real. Ottoman gunners
shredded the Christian flagship’s rigging, and Turkish
soldiers twice sought to board Real. The tide finally
shifted when Colonna’s galley, Capitana, rammed Sultana, his harquebusiers raking the enemy flagship’s deck
with murderous fire. Struck in the forehead by a round,
Ali Pasha dropped where he stood. Moments later men
from both Real and Capitana swarmed aboard the Turkish
flagship and captured it, replacing the Muslim standard
with the banner of Christ. The boarders soon subdued the
rest of Sultana’s crew. One of John’s saltier sailors severed
Ali Pasha’s head, jumped overboard and swam over to
Real to present it to the admiral. The grisly trophy briefly
sat atop a pike at the Christian flagship’s stern before
some merciful soul tossed it into the sea.
The Holy League chaplains were in the thick of the
fighting—holding crucifixes high in encouragement,
comforting the wounded and praying for the dying. One
Italian friar clung to the pinnacle of a topmast jubilantly
shouting, “Vittoria, Vittoria!” When a group of Turks
boarded Father Anselm’s galley, the former cavalryman
grabbed a sword from a fallen Muslim and started swinging. Before he realized what he was doing, seven enemy
INDEX FOTOTECA (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)
John of Austria (at top left, wearing a blue-plumed helmet) looks on
as red-caped buglers signal troops to board a rammed Turkish galley.
Battle of
Lepanto
soldiers lay dead at his feet. Inspired at the sight, Anselm’s
Losses on either side were terrible. Sixty
fellow Christians drove the rest of the Turks from the galley. Ottoman galleys went aground, 53 were sunk
Among the many Christian heroes at Lepanto was a or destroyed, and 117 galleys and 20 galliots
24-year-old Spanish common soldier who would gain were captured. Some 30,000 Turks either
fame as an author. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra served drowned or were killed in battle. The Holy
HOLY LEAGUE
on the Christian right aboard Doria’s Marchesa, which saw League fleet lost 13 galleys, 7,600 men killed
50,000 SEAMEN AND OARSMEN,
much action. Although feverish with malaria, Cervantes and almost 8,000 wounded. Freed in the wake
30,000 SOLDIERS
wielded a sword and was among the first of his squadron of the victory, however, were most of the
to board one of the Turkish galleys. He suffered three gun- 15,000 Christian slaves who had manned the
GALLEYS
shot wounds, one of which maimed his left hand—“for the oars of the enemy galleys.
PLUS SIX GALLEASSES
glory of the right,” quipped the future Don Quixote novelist.
When news of the victory reached Rome, it
Another Spanish hero of the battle was a harquebusier was attributed to the intercession of the Virgin
aboard the flagship Real who turned out to be a young Mary, and Pius V burst into tears of joy. Though
KILLED
woman in disguise. María la Bailadora (“The Dancer”) had his prestige soared, the pope gave all credit to 13 GALLEYS SUNK OR DESTROYED
joined the expedition so as not to be parted from her officer his adept admiral. “There was a man sent from
lover. As grappling irons held Real and Sultana fast, and God whose name was John,” he said, echoing
a boarding party scrambled aboard the latter, María re- the scriptural reference to John the Baptist.
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
SEAMEN AND OARSMEN,
portedly leaped nimbly to the deck of the enemy ship and
For the first time in memory the Turks had 50,00034,000
SOLDIERS
killed a Turk with a single sword thrust. She was rewarded been beaten decisively, and a wave of relief and
by being allowed to remain in the pay of her regiment. renewed confidence surged across Christian
Standing by Real’s mainmast beneath the Holy League Europe. Church bells pealed, bonfires blazed
GALLEYS
PLUS 50 GALLIOTS
banner, John made a conspicuous target. Though aides in Venice, Christian poets churned out verses
begged him to go belowdecks, he refused. Also fighting and mints struck commemorative coins.
from the front was Venier, whose Capitana was also
Lepanto, the last great battle of the last
KILLED
locked in combat with Sultana. As orders were pointless crusade, was both decisive and indecisive.
53 GALLEYS/GALLIOTS SUNK OR
in the noise and confusion, Venier simply stood at his The Christians ended Turkish domination
DESTROYED, 117 GALLEYS AND
20 GALLIOTS CAPTURED
prow and fired into the enemy ranks with a blunderbuss of the Mediterranean, but Pius V died the
while a servant reloaded his weapon. The venerable following spring, and his Holy League soon
admiral “performed the feats of arms of a young man,” disintegrated, failing to follow its naval triumph with a
reported a contemporary chronicler.
coordinated resistance on land. The Turks
By 2 p.m., with Ali Pasha dead and his flagheld on to Cyprus, Muslim warships conship gutted, the Ottoman fleet was reeling.
tinued their depredations, and the Barbary
Adding insult to injury, Christian boarders
pirates of North Africa continued to prey on
deep in Sultana’s hold discovered and conWestern shipping for centuries.
fiscated the Turkish commander’s personal
Lepanto marked the last major instance of
fortune of 150,000 Venetian gold sequins,
naval warfare as an extension of ground warwhich he’d unwisely chosen not to leave
fare, with soldiers fighting on the high seas.
in Constantinople.
It also brought the Age of Sail to fruition. The
The skill of John’s seamen and superior
sailing vessels deployed in battle off Lepanto
firepower of his soldiers put the Turks to
were speedier than the galleys, boasted more
flight, those trapped against the shore by
offensive capacity and were more seaworthy.
ships on the Christian left being put to death
Combat at sea would never be the same.
by the thousands. The few Ottoman galleys
Cannons and sails steadily replaced swords
still putting up a fight in the center were
and oars, and a mere 17 years later Queen
destroyed. After running out of cannon balls,
Elizabeth’s Royal Navy defeated brother-inshot and arrows, their exhausted crews pelted
law Philip II’s Spanish Armada. MH
Pope
Pius
V
ordered
the Christians with oranges and lemons.
various medals struck
John’s men tossed them back with laughter.
The late newspaperman and author Michael
to commemorate the
D. Hull was a longtime and frequent condefeat of the Muslims
tributor to Historynet magazines. For furWhen the battle ended at 4 p.m., the Gulf of at Lepanto. This reproduction
of
one
of
those
ther reading the editors recommend The
Patras was red with blood and strewn with
medals
depicts
the
pope
Venetians, by Colin Thubron; Lepanto,
broken ships, bodies and debris. That night
on the obverse and the
1571, by Angus Konstam; 100 Decisive
the Holy League fleet retired to an anchorage
battle on the reverse.
Battles, by Paul K. Davis; and Sea Power,
just outside the gulf, while a few burning
Examples were struck
in bronze and silver.
edited by E.B. Potter.
hulks flared on the darkened sea.
80,000
206
7,600
84,000
222
30,000
HERITAGE AUCTIONS
To Victory!
49