A 1678 painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger shows a British ship, flying the Union Flag, attempting to fend off a Barbary attack
As they steered their oar-driven galleys back and forth across the Mediterranean, zig-zagging from coastal raid to ship capture and back again, the Barbary corsairs were masters of their own particular sea. But they had ambition. Thanks to the technological know-how and geographical nous of renegade Europeans who had become their allies, they learned how to navigate the sailing ships they’d seized, ships that would allow them to set a course for the more tempestuous Atlantic Ocean.