Pontault, Sébastien Beaulieu de
1694

Combat Naval 1645

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Combat Naval 1645

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Interesting, scarce depiction of the "Action of 28 September 1644" when six Maltese galleys (galère / pl. galères; Fr.) attacked and defeated several sailing vessels of the Ottoman Sultan. This attractive original copperplate engraving contains an elaborate border and garland wrapped with ribbons and a central portrait of Gabrielle Chambres de Boisbaudran, the leader of the Maltese contingent and a Knight of Malta, who was killed in that engagement. From Paris, 1694.

The engraved battle scene includes the island of Rhodes, Greece in the distance as Christian galleys engage with Greek and Turkish square-rigged sailing vessels. The six galleys depicted include" "La Capitaine de Malte, St. Jean, St. Laurent, St. Joseph, Ste. Marie, and La Victoire.

The Christian galleys engaged a Ottoman convoy carrying pilgrims bound for Mecca. The Maltese killed many pilgrims and took almost 400 prisoners as slaves including by some reports one of the Sultan's wives and her son. On their voyage home the Maltese stopped in Crete, then a possession of Venice, for a few days. This apparent collusion between the Maltese and Venetians, previously at peace with the Turks, served as a pretense for the Cretan war between the Ottomans, Venice and Malta between 1645 and 1669.

From the book "Les glorieuses Conquêtes de Louis-le-Grand: ou Recueil, de Plans et Vues des places assiegeés, et de celles ou se sont douneés des batailles…" produced from the drawings of the Sébastien Pontault de Beaulieu (1612-1674). Pontault, a French engineer, is considered to have been the inventor of the art of military topography.