Seydi Ali Reis: The Admiral the Storm Sent Home Overland
An Ottoman admiral was ordered to sail a battered fleet from Basra to Suez—instead, a monsoon storm dragged him toward India, and he would not see Constantinople again for three years.
Seydi Ali Reis was born in 1498 in Galata, across the Golden Horn from Constantinople, into a family bound to the sea for generations. His grandfather had served as Commander of the Ottoman Imperial Naval Arsenal under Mehmed II, and his father, Hüseyin Reis, ran the Naval Industries Center in Galata. Raised amid shipyards and rigging, young Seydi Ali worked at the arsenal from an early age, yet he was no mere technician: he studied mathematics, astronomy and geography, excelled in literature and theology, and became an accomplished poet.
His naval career began at the Siege of Rhodes in 1522 and carried him through nearly every major Ottoman campaign in the Mediterranean. He commanded the left wing of Hayreddin Barbarossa's fleet at the decisive Battle of Preveza in 1538, where the Ottomans defeated the Holy League commanded by Andrea Doria. In 1551 he fought under Sinan Pasha and Turgut Reis in the conquest of Tripoli from Spain and the Knights of Malta. Steady promotion followed, culminating in the ranks of Azepler Kâtibi, Tersâne Kethüdâsı, and Hassa Donanma Reisi, Commander of the Ottoman Central Fleet.
In late 1552, while Suleiman the Magnificent wintered in Aleppo, he named Seydi Ali Reis the new Commander of the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet, headquartered at Suez with additional bases in Aden and Basra. He succeeded admirals Piri Reis and Koca Murat Reis in this post. Leaving Aleppo on 7 December 1553, he reached Basra by early February 1554, tasked with bringing fifteen Ottoman galleys—many damaged in earlier clashes with the Portuguese—back to Suez. With scarce resources, he repaired the ships and fitted them with new cannons.
He waited roughly five months for favorable monsoon winds before setting sail from Basra on 2 July 1554, escorted partway by the frigate of Sherifi Pasha. His fleet called at Bahrain, Dizful, Shushter, Bushehr, Qatif, Kish and Barhata, finding no sign of Portuguese ships, so the escort turned back with word that the Strait of Hormuz was clear. But near Horfakan on 9 August, Seydi Ali's fifteen galleys ran into a Portuguese fleet of 25 vessels dispatched from Goa. In the ensuing Battle of Hormuz, one Portuguese galleon was sunk and the Ottomans emerged victorious after fighting that lasted until sunset.
The respite was brief. On 25 August, near Muscat, a reinforced Portuguese fleet of 34 ships attacked again in what became known as the Battle of Muscat. Using the coastal mountains of southern Arabia to pin the enemy against the shore, Seydi Ali's men sank seven Portuguese vessels, though they lost five of their own.
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