Battle of Alborán The battle of Alborán took place on 1 October 1540 off the island of Alborán during the Ottoman - Habsburg struggle for the control of the Mediterranean when a Spanish fleet under the command of Bernardino de Mendoza destroyed an Ottoman fleet commanded by Ali Hamet , sinking a galley and capturing 10 other ships . Background . In mid - 1540 the Barbary pirate Ali Hamet , a Sardinian renegade in service of the Ottoman Empire , formed a small fleet at Algiers , as ordered by Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa . He assembled three galleys , five galliots , six fustas and two brigantines , manned by 900 captive oarsmen and 2 , 000 Turkish soldiers and Valencian Morisco s under the command of General Caramani , a former slave in the Spanish galleys . In August , knowing that Spanish galleys were in the Balearic Islands , the fleet set sail to the western waters of the Alborán Sea . A few days later a thousand soldiers from the galleys landed on the beach of Gibraltar and attacked the village . Although they failed to capture the well - protected castle , 73 civilians were taken prisoner , 40 vessels moored in the port were plundered , and a galley under construction ( owned by Don Álvaro de Bazán the Elder ) was burnt . The prisoners were carried off to Vélez de la Gomera , on the Moroccan coast , where they were imprisoned until their release following a payment of 7 , 000 ducats . Battle . Bernardino de Mendoza , commander of the galleys of Spain , learned of the raid while in Denia . After being told that they had not gone through Oran , Mendoza anticipated that Hamet ' s fleet would return to Algiers along the African coast . Mendoza therefore sailed his 10 galleys to the west . On 1 October both fleets sighted each other near the island of Alborán . Hamet attacked the Spanish with great determination , hoping to use his numerical superiority to board Mendoza ' s ships ; however , a Spanish artillery salvo inflicted severe damage on his ships before they could get close enough to engage the galleys . Hamet and Caramani attempted unsuccessfully to board Mendoza ' s flagship . The Spanish commander , aware that the outcome of the battle depended heavily on this fight , ordered his soldiers and rowers to move to one side of the galley , raising the opposite side to act as a parapet against Hamet ' s galleys gunfire . Then Mendoza ' s soldiers boarded and captured Caramanis galley , killing Caramani and the majority of his crew . Next they boarded Hamet ' s galley and captured it , at which point Hamet jumped into the water and swam to another galley in his fleet . A Spanish galley commanded by Pedro de Guerra sank one Ottoman galley with a single shot and captured another by boarding it . The galley " Santa Ana " , meanwhile , was attacked by two Algerian vessels , one of which was forced to surrender , while the other escaped . Hamet , who had been rescued by an Algerian galliot , was captured by Enrique Enríquez ' s galley while trying to escape . The battle ended with an incident during which Enrique Enríquez ordered his men to fire on an Ottoman galley believing it was still in Turkish hands . However , the crew of the " Santa Bárbara " had already captured the galley ; seven Spanish died and twelve were injured . Aftermath . Of the 16 Ottoman ships , ten were captured and one sunk . More than 700 Turks , including all the captains , were killed . In addition , 427 of them were captured and 837 Christian slaves were freed . The Spanish , meanwhile , had 137 dead and about 500 wounded , including Bernardino de Mendoza , who was wounded in the head by a harquebus shot . To celebrate the victory a great procession was organized in Málaga , in which the freed prisoners , the crews of the Spanish galleys , their captains , and Bernardo de Mendoza himself participated . Shortly after the Emperor Charles V was informed of the victory by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo , who recommended the Emperor thank God for the victory .