Surprise Ottoman naval raid on Gibraltar capturing prisoners and ships.
The 1540 Sack of Gibraltar was a surprise Ottoman naval attack against Gibraltar. An expedition commanded by Alí Hamet, with landing troops under Caramaní, captured around seventy prisoners and plundered forty vessels in the port. After ransom negotiations, survivors were later freed following the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Alboran.
The 1540 Sack of Gibraltar was a surprise attack carried out by the Ottoman fleet against the city of Gibraltar, then under the Hispanic Monarchy. The expedition had been assembled in Algiers by Jeireddín Barbarossa and was commanded by Alí Hamet, a Sardinian renegade, with the landing forces led by Caramaní, a former slave on Spanish galleys. The fleet, consisting of three galleys, five galiots, six fustas and two brigantines, with about nine hundred galley slaves and two thousand soldiers, sailed west in August. The Ottoman squadron reached the beach of Gibraltar flying imperial standards, turning the action into a false-flag operation. More than a thousand men disembarked, seized the city gates and took about seventy prisoners, but re-embarked when they realized the castle was well defended. In the port they plundered forty vessels and burned a galley under construction belonging to Álvaro de Bazán the Elder. They then remained at anchor for several days, negotiating a ransom and obtaining eight hundred ducats for part of the captives. During the return voyage, the Ottoman fleet was intercepted and decisively defeated near Alboran Island, and the remaining Gibraltarian prisoners were released. Emperor Charles V consequently ordered Gibraltar’s defences to be strengthened.
