Naval battle at Jask

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Naval battle at Jask
date December 28, 1620
place in front of Bandar-e Jask , Gulf of Oman
exit East India Company victory
Parties to the conflict

East India Company

Portugal , Spanish Netherlands

Commander

Andrew Shilling (†)

Ruy Freire de Andrade

Troop strength
4 ships 4 ships

The sea ​​battle at Jask was an armed conflict on December 28, 1620 at Cape Jask (Ra's-e Jask) near the Iranian port city of Bandar-e Jask between armed ships of the English East India Company on the one hand and Portugal and the Spanish Netherlands on the other. It ended with a victory for the British squadron.

prehistory

After Vasco da Gama came to India by sea in 1498 , the Portuguese began to conquer areas in India from 1505 and set up trade bases there as well as establish bases on the coasts of the Indian Ocean to secure the sea route from Portugal to India. In 1509 they achieved complete naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean by destroying a united Egyptian-Arab-Indian fleet in the naval battle of Diu , and in 1510 they conquered Goa . In 1515 they also occupied the island of Hormuz in the north of the Strait of Hormuz , established a fort and a trading post there and thus controlled access to and maritime trade in the Persian Gulf .

One hundred years later, in December 1616, the first English merchant ship, the James from Surat in India , appeared under Captain Edward Connock of the English East India Company at Cape Jask at the east end of the Strait of Hormuz, and in 1619 the company set up on the basis of one 1617 by Connock of Shah Abbas I obtained a privilege in Bandar-e Jask a settlement. The company was given the right to import and export goods duty-free , build a church and hold services, set up a cemetery, arrest and repatriate British law breakers, and exercise criminal justice in Anglo-Iranian cases. However, the application to build a fort was rejected in 1618.

This establishment of the English in the Gulf of Oman posed a definite threat to Portuguese trade interests in Persia and the Indian Ocean. In January 1619, Ruy Freire de Andrade († 1633), newly appointed "General of the Sea of ​​Hormuz and the coast of Persia and Arabia" ("General do Mar de Ormuz e costa da Pérsia e Arábia") sailed with five galleons from Lisbon to Persian Gulf with the order to drive out the English, to put the Persians under pressure and to build a Portuguese fort on the island of Qeschm .

foreplay

In June 1620, after a long stay in Mozambique , Ruy Freire arrived in the Gulf of Oman to hunt down the ships of the East India Company that sailed between Jask and Surat in India or to prevent them from calling at Jask, where they were goods unloaded and wanted to take in particular Persian silk .

This did not remain hidden in Surat for long, and the East India Company was forced to take action against Ruy Freire. On February 25, 1619, Captain Andrew Shilling sailed with a small squadron of four ships from Tilbury on the Thames to Surat, which he reached on November 9 with the London and the Roebuck . He had detached the Hart and the Eagle to Jask on November 6th, where, however, they sighted a Portuguese squadron lurking there and then withdrew in the direction of Surat in view of the enemy superiority. Shilling, informed of the situation in Surat, set out on 19 November with his two ships for Jask after unloading his cargo destined for India. On the way on November 22nd, about 14 leugen (around 42 nautical miles ) from the Portuguese base in Diu , he captured a ship from Muscat loaded with dates and 42 Arab horses , which he took with him as a prize . On December 5, he met the Hart and the Eagle about 80 leugen (240 nautical miles) east of Jask.

Determined to take up the Portuguese challenge, Shilling sailed on to Jask, which came in sight on December 15th and which he reached on December 16th. (On the way he had the 48 Portuguese and 106 Muscat, who had been captured in the capture of the Maskatian ship, put ashore.) Ruy Freire's squadron with four galleons and twelve smaller ships lay in the roadstead east of Cape Jask . It wasn't until the morning of December 17th that there was enough wind from the land for the Portuguese to set sail and the first skirmish ensued. Although it took nearly all day, and the English put the captured ship as maskatische Brander against Ruy Freire's flagship (without success), but the battle was inconclusive. The Portuguese withdrew about 10 nautical miles that evening to repair the damage they had suffered, and Shilling, whose ships had used up about half of their ammunition , sailed to Bandar-e Jask, anchored in the roadstead there on December 20, unloading his Cargo and the money brought for the purchase of Persian goods and took new ammunition on board.

The battle

It was not until December 28 that the decisive battle broke out. After repairing his damage, Ruy Freire reappeared before Jask, but adverse winds initially prevented the English from attacking again. It was not until December 26 that Shillings' four ships were able to sail. The Portuguese followed, and the two squadrons finally anchored only about a nautical mile apart on December 28th.

Since Ruy Freire, who had two large galleons and two somewhat smaller Flemish warships ready for action that day , made no move to begin the fight, Shilling took the initiative when the east wind rose around 9 a.m. on the morning of December 28th and sailed with them the London and the Hart headed straight for the Portuguese who were still at anchor. The wind almost completely fell asleep, however, as soon as the two ships came within artillery range, whereupon they anchored a cable and a half lengths (about 300 meters) away from their opponents and opened fire, but also came under fire themselves. They took a number of hits but deployed warpankers and were then able to position themselves to use their full broadside and bring out their artillery superiority.

The Roebuck and the Eagle , which were sailing closer underland in order to pinch their opponents, only got close enough to intervene in the battle after about half an hour. When they finally came within range, the wind fell asleep completely and the tidal current running in the opposite direction also forced them to anchor and deploy warp ankles to ensure an advantageous firing position. During the artillery duel, Ruy Freire's ships were badly damaged, particularly in their rigging, by the superior British gunfire, and around 3 p.m. they cut their ropes and used the tidal current, which was now moving west, to escape the range of the English guns. They were picked up by their frigates , waiting some distance away , and dragged away. The English tried to follow them until early in the morning, but then broke off the chase because of their own lack of ammunition and ran to Bandar-e Jask that morning. They had five dead and five wounded. Among the latter, however, was their Commodore Shilling. He had already been hit in the left shoulder by a cannonball at the beginning of the battle and succumbed to his wound on January 6, 1621. He was buried on January 9 in Bandar-e Jask, although they had initially wanted to bring him to Surat. Captain Richard Blyth succeeded him as a squadron commodore.

The victorious English loaded 520 bales of Persian silk and sailed back to Surat on January 13th, which they reached on February 3rd without being bothered again by the Portuguese.

consequences

Shah Abbas I did not hide the fact that the Portuguese galleons were no longer invincible. Negotiations between him and the East India Company, which were soon started, resulted in significantly expanded trade privileges for the English, who in return were to support Abbas in his campaign against the Portuguese with their ships. In January 1622, a squadron of the Company appeared in the Strait of Hormuz, with the help of which Persian troops conquered the Portuguese forts on the islands of Qeschm (in February) and Hormuz (in April) and thus the Portuguese naval and commercial supremacy in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz ended.

Coordinates: 25 ° 38 ′ 24 ″  N , 57 ° 51 ′ 0 ″  E

Footnotes

  1. ↑ It was not called the British East India Company until 1707.
  2. ^ Daniel T. Potts: Jask, in iranicaonline
  3. ↑ Comentários do grande capitão Rui Freire de Andrada. Ministério das Colónias; Agência Geral das Colónias, Lisbon, 1940
  4. ↑ José Hermano Daraiva (ed.): História de Portugal: Dicionário de Personalidades. Ed. QuidNovi, Lisbon, 2004

literature

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