page_title: Bombardment of Algiers (1682)
section_title: Attack on Algiers
hierarchical_section_title: Bombardment of Algiers (1682) / Attack on Algiers
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gravure hollandaise. "Algiers door de Franschen Gebombardeerd init Iaar 1682" (lit. Alger que les Français bombardent en 1682")
context_page_description: The bombardment of Algiers in 1682 was a naval operation by France against the Regency of Algiers during the French-Algerian war. Louis XIV sent Duquesne to bombard Algiers after the Dey declared war on France in 1681. Duquesne sailed from Toulon with a fleet of around forty vessels and reached Algiers in July 1682 after many delays caused by poor weather. Bombarded several times in August, the city suffered extensive damage. The peace which the Dey was eventually forced to seek was however never agreed, as renewed bad weather forced Duquesne to retreat to French waters.
context_section_description: The fleet reached Algiers on 22 July 1682. Duquesne’s orders were to bombard Algiers into complete submission. Preparing his attack, he sent a detachment of ships commanded by M. de la Maurinière to set fire to two Turkish ships in the port of Cherchell. He then arranged his vessels so as to be ready to attack Algiers, using his galleys to tow his ships of the line and galiots into position.
  However the weather was so bad that the first half of August without him being able to order the attack.  On 15 August, he sent his galleys back to Marseille as their crews could bear the terrible conditions no longer.  This made it difficult for his galiots to manoeuvre. To let them approach and retire from the city in safety, he had longboats commanded by Job Forant carry five anchors close in to the north east of the city, with 2,000 fathoms of cable connecting them to the galiots.
  On 16 August the longboats dropped their anchors near the mole and the galiots were hauled along the cables into position. However it was only on the night of the 20 August that the Grench we’re ready to begin their bombardment. The first assault was largely ineffective as the galiots were too far away from their targets, Nicolas Camelin and Pierre Landouillette de Logivière having misjudged the distance.
  The French decided that it would be better to anchor off the northwest of the city, and on the order of the chevalier de Tourville, Belle-Isle-Erard anchored two ships in position on the night of 20–21 August, and le chevalier de Lhéry brought up three others the next night, much closer in than the ships of Belle-Isle-Erard. Landouillette, captain of the bomb galiots, fired the mortars on board La Cruelle himself. The bombs barely reached the mole and did not touch the city. On  26 August they adjusted their positions again and after this kept up an intense and well-targeted bombardment until 5 September, inflicting serious damage on the port and the city.
  The second night of the bombardment was 30 August. The galiots hauled themselves into position along their cables and fired from much closer to the mole. Tourville, whom Duquesne had placed in command of the second attack, adjusted the ships’ distances again and brought the La Cruelle in before the lighthouse of Algiers. on the third night of bombardment, on the night of the 3 and 4 September, the galiots were closer in still, near the mole. The next night, Duquesne sent the galiots in closer still, 200-260 toises (400–520 metres) from the mole, and around 800 metres from the city wall.  That night, they repelled an attack on the galiots by an Algerian galley, three brigantines and a number of smaller boats. On 4 September, the Dey sent Jean Le Vacher to Duquesne to sue for peace. Duquesne indicated to Le Vacher that if the Algerian authorities had proposals for peas e to make, they should present them themselves, and that he still had four thousand bombs to fire on them if their proposals were not satisfactory.
  On 13 September, the corsair captains managed to manoeuvre their ships so as to threaten the French position. Shortly afterwards, with bad weather making it impossible for the French to hold their positions, they were obliged to abandon the bombardment and retire to France.
caption: Algiers bombarded by the French, 1682. Dutch engraving 1689.
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