Randolph (CVA 15) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 118 text:

THESE TROUBLED WATERS Continued from Page I5 pire, although the Eastern, or Byzantine Empire con-- tinued for more than a thousand years until I453. WVith the passing of Rome, Byzantium became the only naval power in the lvlediterranean, and naval warfare became a long story of piracy and police action, until a new alignment of power appeared. In 622 an Arab, an uneducated man, but speaking with the voice of a prophet, fled from the town of Mecca under political pressure. From that event dates one of history's most amazing movements. In a matter of a few years the followers of Mohammed exploded across Africa and deep into Europe, bringing to the world what proved to be by far its longest and most bitter contest. Islam and Christendom warred con- tinuously from 622 until as late as the First WVorld XfVar, and the ancient rivalry still smolders in the Middle East. In 1958 Randolph was one of hundreds of war- ships of the Christian nations rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean when the delicate balance of Christians and Moslems in Lebanon threatened war. It was Byzantium that first carried the burden of re' sisting Islam's fiery advance. Her situation between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean demanded a large navy, which she kept, but it was not the way of Islam to Hght pitched battles at sea. Every minor oriental potentate, of which there were thousands, and more thousands of private persons, with the blessing of their religion, sent their sleek, fast galleys raiding the ships and ports of Christendom. To police these pirates, Byzantium developed the idea of the cruiser, a fast warship that patrolled and fought alone or in small numbers. One of the military reasons for the long survival of Byzantium was her possession of a secret weapon, Greek fire, the atomic bomb of the Middle Ages. The formula for this terrible substance was so closely guarded over hundreds of years that today we are only able to guess what it might have been. However, its employment was very similar to one of our modern weapons, the flame thrower. Byzantine warships mounted nozzles in their bows through which the lluid was pumped, and ignited by a torch as it issued in a flaming stream. The Byzantine navy was the Hrst to have a special rate of gunner's mates, and the Hrst to perfect the technique of destroying its enemies at a distance. In l453 Constantinople was captured by the Otto- man Turks, but long before that date other Christian powers had risen in the YVest and had taken up the war against Islam. In the W'est, after the fall of the Roman Empire, civilization was preserved only in the Catholic Church for hundreds and hundreds ol' years. When in the Middle Ages Europe at last began again to develop ordered government and the pursuit of civilized ends, it was accomplished under the aegis ol' the Churcli. lhe ideal ol the Church was to weld liuropc, which had long been disorganized and divided by petty chieltains and local wars, into one great Iffll gious community. Une ol the principal methods the Church used to achieve this unity was the Crusade. which channeled the belligerent spirit ol the European warriors against a common enemy, Islam. During the llth century the armies ol liuiope had begun to make headway against the inroads ol the Saracens, and in 1095 the lfirst Crusade was launched by Pope Urban ll. 'Iihis was the most successful ol fi'-' A, 'N ff f ,. . Hs , 'Fif i' I M ff 41 7 F f-lx., ff Ss' f c Nxy L 1 sf f s' f ff lil ,X J! X Phoenician the many crusades of the next 200 years, and jeru- salem was captured in lO99. The Christians estab- lished the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a state which was a going concern until ll87 when Jerusalem was lost. and which was not formally dissolved until 1291. At Hrst, relations between Christians and Bloslems were satisfactory, business flourished and the Moslems were tolerant of Christianity. However. the Moslems. too. developed the crusading spirit. and in HST, Saladin led a Moslem crusade, a bliifllllf. which overwhelmed the Kingdom of jerusalem. Many more crusades were launched, but except for a few years of negotiated peace, jerusalem remained hrmly in the hands of the Moslems. Several of the crusades were conveyed to the East in huge convoys. One of them failed to fight the Saracens at all, because in mid-passage the leaders were induced to take a hand in a political argument in the Byzantine Empire, and their force was directed against Constantinople. The last crusade was taken to Pal' estine by St. l.ouis ol France. a king who was recognized as a saint in his own life-time, in a vast lleet of ISOO ships, some of which carried as mans as H100 persons. Although there were no lleet actions. lighting at sea was continuous and bloody as the raiders of the Bar- bary Coast continued to pres' on the counuerce of ll-l

Page 117 text:

lg 1 , un. 4 , f 1. A , ., - ,M ,,,.f L . Q U,gQ,A.,,,.g pf,f:.zff W. .w. 'J., - . .K 515' LQ TQ P A ff ' ' Q M WW hgvfig :Y fa ' ,a , , . ' Q fv ' '31, 1 flfw ' f ,ff 4 ' fs o '1 U, ,dz X, , 'lf t . 6 :fi 77: , . L , ': ,fL,g,f.,-,ref f,,-q1i,::5':y5 ' Q L' i ,. , YM , L 1? f f., X 7ff3',1 gf' f,' gf!! I ,' I M I'4i,1' 5 3? I-,vw uv.: A 1 ' ' ,-:fzm .A ,I M -1 riwwiifiywiw 4 u s , Q ,X Wy! TT , 5.

Page 119 text:

the West. One of the most colorful stories of Mediterranean naval history is that of the 1'-lospitaller Brothers of St. john of jerusalem. more faniiliarly known, as the Knights of Malta. Their original and proper name came from the fact that they were organized in 1048 as a brotherhood of monks who operated a hospital in jerusalem for the relief of pilgrims. The brothers soon expanded their activities to include the protec- tion of travelers at sea, and they became in time the v i. 'l?a.,fQ2., s!?,4 gp. -.9. f . ., y 5 i , vxxxx 'l '1 ' 1 1 -x iilga 1- 'Q lJ X J X' fi . 5 l'i i' 'i: irM9 if Q1tfYf'ji'i' l lf, - 'hi :Vg Genoese Seaman policemen of the Mediterranean. Mlhen jerusalem fell, the order moved first to the island of Cyprus, but found that it did not suit their needs. Deciding that Rhodes would be an ideal site, they first obtained the sanction of the Emperor of the East, and then took the island from the Saracens by force of arms. The order, now calling themselves the Knights of Rhodes, remained there almost constantly under siege by the Turks from 1309 until 1523. At last, Suleiman the Magnificent came against them with 400 ships and 200,000 men. The Knights, numbering 600 of the order and 4500 troops, held out for six months until their fortress was in ruins. XVhen Suleiman at last entered he was so astonished by their valor that he allowed them to leave the island with all their ships and gear, under the full honors of war. It was this great fortress, rebuilt by the Turks, and recently modernized by Mussolini, which we visited during our stay in Rhodes. The knights wandered for a time, the glory of cen- turies in ruins. Charles V of France restored them by ceding them the island of Malta, their tribute to con- sist of a falron delivered to the King of Francie each year. The Knights constructed a second mighty fora tress there, from whifh they soon regained all their glory. ltfmdoljah and her crew paid a second visit to the Order of St. -Iohn in their second fortress in Malta: in fact she sailed right into the middle of it. The 115 Knights remained in active service on Malta until 1798, when Napoleon took the island on his Way to Egypt and disbanded the Order. The Order of St. John was composed of noblemen organized in eight langues according to their national- ity, representing: France, Provence, Auvergne, Italy, Aragon, Castile, Germany, and England. Because these countries were often at war with each other the Knights lived apart while in Malta, and were only united when they went to sea against the Turk. For 750 years they warred incessantly against the sailors of Islam, but never interfered in European wars. They won such a ferocious reputation that once when a Moslem squadron was attacking the island of Lego a single eighteen-year-old member of the order turned them away by dressing a number of peasants and women in the dreaded uniform. During the thousand years of war between Islam and Christendom, only twice did Islam present a large fleet to the Christian navies. The latter occasion was in 1827 when Britain, France, and Russia intervened against Turkey in the Greek war of independence, and destroyed the Turkish fleet in the bay of Navarino on the west coast of Greece. This battle marked the end of Turkey's importance as a naval power, and from the naval point-of-view the end of the long con- flict, but it was a small affair compared to the first great battle. Suleiman the Magnificent had driven the Order of St. John from Rhodes, only to find that they continued to destroy his ships from Malta. Thinking to complete the destruction of his most persistent enemy, he laid siege to Malta in 1565 with a force of 200 ships and 40,000 men. Again the Knights held out for six months, but this time a Spanish fleet appeared to re- lieve the island, and the siege was lifted. Under Sulei- man Turkey had become the greatest naval power in the world, and was much feared by the Christian navies, but the siege of Malta taught them that the Turks were not invincible. They resolved to make a great effort to destroy Turkey's navy once and for all. ln 1571 the naval powers of Christendom, under the leadership of Philip Il of Spain, brought together the greatest Christian fleet ever assembled, more than 300 warships. Half the ships were Spanish, Venice sent more than a hundred, and the others came from Genoa, Malta, the Pope, and various private gentle- men. Command was given to the most brilliant gentle- man of the day, an illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who because he lacked a legal title called himself simply Don john of Austria: he was twenty-six years old. The Battle of Lepanto was the last to be fought with oared vesselsg the tactics of the battle were much closer to those of Salamis 2000 years before than to Nelson's only 200 years ahead. Don -lohn's galleys differed from those of Themistocles only in being