Action of 28 September 1644
| Action of 28 September 1644 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Maltese Corso | |||||||
A 1707 engraving from the Theatrum Europaeum depicting the naval battle | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Hospitaller Malta | Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Gabriel de Chambres Boisbaudran † Nicolás Cotoner | Ibrahim Çelebi † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
6 galleys 400+ men |
1 galleon 9 pinks and saiques 600+ men and passengers on board the galleon | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
125 men killed 262+ men wounded |
1 galleon captured 1 saique captured 1 pink sunk c. 220 killed 380 men and passengers captured | ||||||
The action of 28 September 1644 was a naval battle which was fought in the Eastern Mediterranean when six Hospitaller galleys under Gabriel de Chambres Boisbaudran attacked a convoy of ten Ottoman sailing ships including a galleon commanded by Ibrahim Çelebi. Both sides suffered considerable casualties including the deaths of both commanders, and the battle ended when the Hospitallers captured the richly-laden galleon after hours of fighting.
Three hundred eighty (380) people on board the Ottoman galleon were captured by the Hospitallers, including a woman from the imperial harem and a young boy who were claimed to be the favourite and firstborn son of sultan Ibrahim. The Hospitallers took the captives and loot to Malta but stopped at the Venetian Kingdom of Candia on the way; this was used as a pretext for the decades-long Cretan War which broke out between the Ottomans and Venice in 1645.