| Battle of Zonchio | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theOttoman–Venetian War of 1499–1503 | |||||||
 unknown Venetian artist, British Museum | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Ottoman Empire | Republic of Venice | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Kemal Reis Feriz Beg | Antonio Grimani | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 60 light galleys 3 heavy galleys 30 galiots 40 fustas 21 carracks 111 barges | 46 light galleys 17 heavy galleys 15 carracks 4 caravels 11 brigantines | ||||||
The navalBattle of Zonchio (Turkish:Sapienza Deniz Muharebesi, also known as theBattle of Sapienza or theFirst Battle of Lepanto) took place on four separate days: 12, 20, 22, and 25 August 1499. It was a part of theOttoman–Venetian War of 1499–1503.[2]
During its course, the Venetians attempted to intercept an Ottoman fleet in route to conquerLepanto, but they were hampered by miscoordination and repeatedly failed to engage the Ottomans. With their failure at checking their advance, Lepanto fell shortly after. The Ottomans emerged as a serious naval force in the Mediterranean with their victory, followed by a series of similar successes during the war.[3]
In January 1499Kemal Reis set sail fromConstantinople with a force of 10galleys and 4 other types of ships, and in July met with the huge, 260-ship Ottoman fleet which was sent to him byDavud Pasha, taking over its command in order to wage a large scale war against theRepublic of Venice. They were carrying supplies for six months in order to spend winder away from Ottoman mainland, as well as equipment for a great siege, including 15 greatbombards and dozens of smaller ones. The fleet sailed off on 30 June fromGallipoli and headed forLemnos andQuios. The suffered slight casualties near cape Mantello when several ships sank.[4]
On July 5, Giacomo Giustiniani fromCerigo warned Venetian captain-generalAntonio Grimani that the Ottoman fleet had placed between Cerigo andNegroponte with unknown plans. As a consequence, all Venetian garrisons around Morea were ordered to prepare for an imminent attack. On July 10, the Venetian captains gathered inModon, where Grimani was advised to steer the Venetian fleet to open sea to prevent the Ottomans from trapping it in port. However, although Grimani was 65 and a proven captain in battle, he was not an experienced leader and had never commanded large battle fleets. He had only been given command because of a donation of 16,000ducats to the state and personally funding the arming of 10 galleys, and was not told whether to fight an offensive or defensive campaign. As a consequence, he didn't give an order immediately.[5]
In late July, Grimani and his fleet sighted the Ottoman armada betweenCoron and Modon, but Kemal was not out for battle, but to reinforce Ottoman positions on land, following the coast so tightly that some vessels ran aground and their Greek crews deserted to the Venetians. The Ottomans entered the gulf of Corone on Jul 24 and disembarked some men inSapienza.[6][5] Grimani waited for them to do so and followed them, but he found wind unfavorable to attack, so he ultimately returned to Modon with his light galleys while leaving his carracks and heavier galleys at open sea. He sought his chance several times more the next days, but it failed to appear.[7]
Meanwhile, Kemal remained around Sapientza and sacked Sapientza the island. One of his cargo ships fortuitously sank on August 7. Days later, between August 8 and 10, Kemal moved his fleet from Sapienza toNavarino and performed his own maneuvers trying to draw Grimani to fight, but turning out to be feints.[5] Battle finally came on August 12 nearCape Zonchio, when the Ottomans abandoned the bay and Grimani found the wind necessary to attack.[7]
_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpg)
The Ottoman armada counted 260 ships, including 60 lightgalleys, 3 great galleys similar to the posteriorgalleasses, 30galiots, 30-40fustas, 23 sailing ships of both war and transport and 111barges with cavalry and artillery.[8][9] It carried possibly as many as 35,000 fighting men aboard, many among them eliteJanissaries.[10] SultanBayezid II, seeking to maximize the effectiveness of the Ottoman Navy, had given command to experienced corsairs like Kemal Reis and Burak Reis.[8]
As sailing warships were occasionally used by western countries in the Mediterranean, the Ottomans had built two massivecarracks calledgöke (fromcog)[11] under the guidance of renegade Venetian engineer Gianni, who had worked in theVenetian Arsenal.[10] The two ships were enormous by the standards of the age, displacing 1800 tons each and carrying heavy artillery and one thousand fighting men and were moved by both sails and rows. Their length was said to be of seventycubits, and theirmaintops were large enough to hold forty arquebusiers and archers. The ships were thought to be invulnerable to Venetian galleys.[8]
The Venetian fleet was much smaller, with only 95 vessels of both sail and row, although those were superior in tonnage, carrying 25,000 fighters in total.[6] Other sources give 123.[12] It was composed of 17 galleys, 46 galliots, and about 15 carracks at the time.[9] The fleet had more heavy carracks and great galleys than its counterpart, including two 1200-ton carracks, one of them namedPandora. Grimani was confident all of these ships would grant him the victory despite the steep difference in numbers.[13]
Grimani struggled to arrange his fleet due to the size and variety of his ships, but managed to do so, placing the heavier ships in the vanguard to shatter the enemy line and the lighter galleys behind to prey on their opponents after a hopeful rout. He gave order of being as close as possible without entangling the oars and not to leave the center unguarded, and in order to prevent indiscipline, he also decreed that any soldier trying to hunt booty during the battle and any captain refusing to attack would be hanged.[14] He was positioned with his flagship in the center of the Venetian line along with the 15 largest ships. The left wing was composed of 17 ships and commanded by the fleet's main backer, Simone Guoro, while the right wing was composed of other 14 vessels. The support fleet was 11 galleys under Domenico Malipiero, yet another backer.[15]
The Ottoman fleet headed towards them by rowing, towing their sailing ships,[16] while the Venetians held the line awaiting for the wind, but before the Ottomans got close enough, four Venetiancaravels and elevenbrigantines captained byAndrea Loredan and Simone Greco arrived from leaving their post inCorfu and joined the fleet. An experienced commander, Loredan had been previously hunting down Kemal Reis and desired to participate in taking down his enemy. Grimani was irritated by the irruption and by being upstaged by the popular Loredan, but allowed him to join the battle and command the first line along with Alban d'Armer. The two choose to command the two heaviest Venetian carracks, with Loredan captaining thePandora. The Venetians then attacked to meet the Ottomans,[14] although just before the clash, eight Venetian galleys disobeyed the orders and fled from the battle.[17]
Loredan immediately directed thePandora towards the largest of the two Ottoman carracks, believing it to be Kemal's flagship, but this turned out to be actually the other, while the ship he had targeted was commanded by Burak.[18] ThePandora and Alban's carrack closed on Burak's ship exchanging their powerfulartillery, while Turkish galleys swarmed the two Venetian carracks from the sides. Kemal helped Burak by firing his guns from afar, probably prevented by their own galleys from approaching the melee.[19] While action raged, however, the rest of the Venetian fleet refused to join the battle. Alvise Marcello, the commander of the other Venetian carracks, withdrew with his division after capturing just one Ottoman vessel. For his part, Vicenzo Polani, captain of one of the Venetian great galleys, attacked alone with his ship and battled the surrounding Ottoman galleys.[20][16]
Grimani desperately called the rest of the fleet to battle with his trumpet, but most captains ignored him, while those attempting to obey were encumbered by being at the rear guard. Grimani himself did not join the battle either, while rowers screamed at the carracks for their captains to be hanged. Only eight light vessels from Corfu finally joined, only to be peppered, with one of them sinking. Polani was then forced to flee with his great galley severely damaged by her particular battle, and upon doing so, the other ships of her type followed her and fled. These of Loredan and d'Armer were ultimately the only Venetian ships which sustainedly fought,[21] aside from a small Venetian carrack, theBrocheta, which was surrounded and sunk, although its crew could be rescued.[22]
Loredan and d'Armer had continued engaging Burak at close range against all odds, and after grappling the Ottoman carrack, their boarding parties jumped in and gradually overcame it. However, at this point fire spread in the Turkish ship, either due to theirincendiary cannonballs or as a last attempt by Burak, unable to disentangle his ships, to take his opponents with him.[16] With the Venetian carracks similarly unable to disengage, the Ottoman carrack'spowder magazine exploded and the destruction spread to the western ships, with the result that all of the three vessels burned and sank. The Ottoman survivors were rescued by the nearby galleys and carrack, while the Venetian fleet, leaving the survivors to be killed by the Turks. Burak and Loredan died, while d'Armer managed to escape in a skiff but was captured and executed.[23] The Ottomans lost two cargo ships and four minor vessels. On August 14, Grimani order the fleet to retreat to Zante to reoarganize and defend Lepanto.[17]
The Venetian armada withdrew to the sea, while Kemal and the Ottomans moved towards Lepanto, capitalizing on the chance and not wanting to risk to a more focused battle. They advanced along with the Ottoman land army, which progressed towards Lepanto. Grimani attempted to prevent a repeat of the previous encounter by dividing command between his subordinates, but those refused. A French flotilla of 22 ships sent by KingLouis XIII arrived then, increasing morale at the cost of complicating coordination even more due to their unexperienced crews.[24] They were composed by 16 carracks, four galleys and twofustas, underGuy de Blanchefort andPrégent de Bidoux.[25]
On August 20, Grimani attempted to stop the Ottomans by sending sixfire ships fashioned after caravels, but the Ottomans could see them coming and dodged or intercepted them. The Christian carracks, numbering around forty, attacked then at once, being met by a similar number of Turkish galleys preceding the Ottoman fleet. Although the Christians inflicted damage on them, sinking and damaging many galleys, they could not stop the mass of the Ottoman armada, nor prevent the land army from continuing towards the gulf of Lepanto.[26][16] On August 22, the Venetian and French fleets intercepted again the Ottomans, driving them against the shore by artillery, but Grimani and his captains ordered to return to open sea, not wanting to risk their ships, which infuriated the French.[27]
Before daybreak in August 25, Grimani and the Christian fleet prepared a last attack, concentrating all of their ships. He used the same scheme of the first battle, forming his sailing ships in the vanguard, with the heavy galleasses behind and the light galleasses in the third place. However, either due to the lack of wind or due to indecision at the sight of the Ottoman artillery, the Christian carracks failed to advance again. By comparison, Kemal had rushed to move his fleet to the gulf as fast as possible, leaving several sailing ships behind and towing others with his galleys.[26][28]
At the end, and faced against the general inaction, captain Polo Calbo advanced with his galleys with eleven galleys, managing to capture eight Turkish galleys before being overpowered by the fire from the Ottoman carracks. The French also attacked, but again followed by few ships.[25] To the Venetians' dismay, the Ottoman fleet finally entered the gulf of Lepanto, meaning the city would be besieged by land and sea. For their part, the French withdrew from the war in disgust for their allies' performance, heading back toMarseille andRhodes.[26][28]
The result of Zonchio was a disaster for the Venetian armada, dealing a severe blow to the Venetian morale. It revealed the systemic faults that weighed it down, like appointing unexperienced admirals and captains unmotivated to compromise. The major participants wrote reports blaming each other for wasting the chance on August 12, with Grimani's own claiming about his captains: "the whole fleet with one voice cried 'Hang them! Hang them!' God knows that they deserved it, but it would have been necessary to hang four-fifths of our fleet".[29] Grimani was blamed for the failure and labeled a traitor. His palace and shops in Venice were vandalized, and he was arrested and returned to Venice in chains. He was banished to the island ofCherso. However, in a later twist, he became theDoge of Venice in 1521.
The Ottoman SultanBayezid II gave 10 of the captured Venetian galleys to Kemal Reis, who later stationed his fleet at the island ofCefalonia between October and December 1499. The Ottomans and Venetians soon confronted each other for a second time at theSecond Battle of Lepanto, also known as the Battle of Modon, and the Ottomans were again victorious under Kemal Reis.