ABSTRACT
In no other field of military endeavor were the Ottomans more richly endowed by nature and historical circumstance than in that of the navy. In the sixteenth century, under the successive commands of Hayreddm Barbarossa and Turgut Re'is, the Ottoman navy fully exploited these advantages, and Ottoman naval supremacy was accepted throughout the Mediterranean area. The ships of the Ottoman fleet at the end of the eighteenth century were invariably massive and bulky, with excessively high poops, superstructures, and riggings, with widths almost as great as their lengths, and with unusually deep drafts which denied them access to any but the deepest harbors. Even at the very end of the eighteenth century, there were many Ottoman ships which had to keep in sight of land in order to find their way. Ottoman detachments rendered important assistance to the British fleet in helping Acre hold off the long and decisive siege mounted by Bonaparte.
