Baltimore of west cork , Ireland was sacked , attacked and looted by people from barbary coasts of north africa on 20 june , 1631.
The pirates included berbers from the regency of algiers , ottoman turks and dutchmen.
This was mainly to spread fear and an attempt to make the rising british empire feel that ottomans still have influence.
The pirates who did this raid were led by a dutch pirate Jan janszoon van haarlem , who was kidnapped and brought to algiers and was granted freedom after he converted to islam and changed his name to Mourad reis .....around 1618 or 1620 ..... He was one of the noteable pirates from the 17th century.
He led algerians and some ottoman janissaries and some european renegades and sailed all the way from the mediterranean to the coast of baltimore.
Mourad and his men attacked on baltimore sometime on 20th june 1631 and looted and plundered the town and took some 107 people (some records mention as high as 237) most of whom were english settlers and some local irish people too , to sell them in the slave market in algiers. What happened to those people afterwards is not known. They were not to be seen again. Only 3 returned back to ireland and nothing is known about them too.
Baltimore was ghosted and no one lived there for several next generations.
How mourad reis died is unknown but in circa 1635 ... he was taken by the knights of malta during a raid and they put him into the notorious dungeons of the island .... He became much ill because of living in dungeon ..... in 1639 or sometime during this period .... the dey of tunis carefully planned and rescued him and his fellow corsairs from malta .... he was praised in his return to algiers and nearby barbary coasts.
Great
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