Barbary Corsairs, English Privateers & Devon Mariners
Four talks that explore how English privateers and Barbary Corsairs fared from 1550-1815.
This History Day is now SOLD OUT – for more talks and events about Maritime History in the South West, please see our Events page for details.
Our 4 talks explore the violent, profit-driven, and deeply human world of early modern seafaring conflict. We begin with fresh evidence from Spanish Inquisition archives, revealing how Elizabethan privateers, pirates, and West Country mariners explained their actions, beliefs, and loyalties under interrogation. Next comes the dramatic capture by English Privateers of the Portuguese carrack Madre de Dios, whose treasure cargo stunned England and turned Dartmouth into a scene of chaos and opportunism, with long echoes for overseas expansion. We then examine the South Devon experience of the Barbary corsairs, following captured sailors to North African prisons, galleys, and ransom markets through their own recorded words. Finally, we assess the 1816 bombardment of Algiers and Admiral Pellew’s campaign against European enslavement—was it a decisive humanitarian blow or symbolic display of British naval power?
TICKETS SOLD OUT – Details of the day are here