20 Facts About Sefer Reis

Sefer Reis was an Ottoman admiral and privateer who was active against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century.

The strategy of Sefer Reis was different from that of his predecessors in that he never tried to storm a fortress, transport troops or land siege equipment.

Sefer Reis turned back and headed in the direction from which he had come, moving fast and avoiding an open sea confrontation with the more heavily armed Portuguese forces.

Luiz Figueira stopped his pursuit of Sefer Reis and set course for India to report his observations to his superiors.

Sefer Reis had expected his arrival and was waiting in a carefully chosen location.

Sefer Reis was ordered to link up his galleys with those in Suez to better fight the Portuguese, but he had to go through Persian Gulf.

Sefer Reis had the Portuguese crew arrested and placed a contingent in each captured ship.

Sefer Reis ordered them to return to Mocha and wait for him there.

However, an armed Portuguese vessel under Balthazar Lobato sighted the Ottoman fleet, and when the Portuguese crew saw it, they revolted and overwhelmed the Ottoman forces They set to sail for India again, however at this time, Sefer Reis gave up in hunting for more ships and decided to return to his base.

On his way, he sighted the same Portuguese ships, and releasing what had happened, Sefer Reis engaged them and succeeded in capturing them back.

Sefer Reis then gave a chase to Lobato's ship until it surrendered without a fight Now with nine ships under his command, he returned to his base within a few weeks.

Vasconcelos reached the Yemeni coast in the beginning of 1555 but found no sight of Sefer Reis, he continued to cruise between Hormuz and India but yielded no results and returned to India.

Joao de Lisboa wrote a letter from captivity in Cairo in 1555 to the Portuguese viceroy, recommending a direct strike against his base in Mocha reporting that it had no walls or fortress, it was defended by only 400 Arab tribesmen and that Sefer Reis had no more than 400 men in his fleet.

The Portuguese struggles against Sefer Reis continued as they suffered another defeat by him in 1560.

In 1560 a Portuguese squadron was ambushed and defeated off the coast of Kamaran by four galleys of Sefer Reis who seized two Portuguese ships.

The Portuguese commander Christovao Pereira Homem had set sail to the port of Massawa, where they were greeted by the Turks who caused a delay which allowed Sefer Reis to make preparations for an ambush against them.

Sefer Reis disguised his ship to look like a rich spice ship from Aceh fooling the Portuguese who intended on seizing it they were ambushed by the Ottoman galleys who killed and captured everyone aboard two Portuguese ships while the other two fled to India.

Sefer Reis sailed only as far as Mocha, where he sailed through the summer sailing season and into the fall, Sefer set out with the intention of pillaging the entire Swahili coast and proceeding all the way to Mozambique, where he had great hopes of catching, such an assault promised to result in an unparalleled amount of captives and cargo being captured.

Sefer Reis had left late the year before and was a day and a half away from Mocha on his way to the island of Socotra when, suddenly, he became very ill.

Sefer Reis had to change his destination to Aden due to his health, and there he died three days after arriving.