Turgut Reis (1485-1565) Ottoman Turkish corsair and later Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, as well as Bey of Tripoli. Known in different languages under such names as Dragut or Darghouth, the original name in Turkey is Turgut Reis (reis = admiral) or less commonly Torgut Reis as his name appears in several old Turkish and foreign resources. There seems to be some uncertainty about the year of his birth, with some sources citing 1485 and others 1514.
Born near Bodrum on the Aegean coast of Turkey, Turgut was one of the Ottoman Empire's most famous corsairs. He was a protege of Hayreddin Barbarossa and fought the Christian powers in numerous battles throughout the Mediterranean, spreading fear with his ferocity. He rapidly rose to be one of Barbarossa's chief lieutenants and commanded one wing of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Preveza in 1538. In 1539 Turgut took Castelnuovo from the Venetians.
Turgut was captured by Andrea Doria while docking his ships at Corsica in 1540 and was forced to work as a galley slave in the ship of Gianettino Doria, the admiral's nephew, for nearly four years. In 1544, when Barbarossa was heading towards Marseilles with a fleet of 120 ships, he heard that Gianettino Doria's ship was docked at Genoa, and changed his route towards Genoa. Barbarossa laid siege on the city with his massive fleet and called Lomellini Doria to negotiate with him in his flagship, obtaining the release of Turgut in exchange of 3000 ducats of gold.
After Barbarossa Hayreddin's death in 1546, Turgut assembled a fleet of 24 brigantines, threatened Naples, conquered the coast of Calabria, and in 1550 captured Mahdia and most of Tunisia. After prolonged and fierce battles, with heavy losses on both sides, Andrea Doria and Bailiff Claude de la Sengle of the Maltese Knights forced Turgut to abandon Tunis in September 1550. Turgut managed to escape with 20 ships to the island of Djerba, where Doria's ships trapped him in an inlet, but he had all his ships dragged overland through hastily dug canals and on a heavily greased boardway to the other side of the island and escaped to Constantinople.
There Turgut, authorized by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, mobilized a fleet of 112 galleys and two galleasses with 12,000 Janissaries, and in 1551 attempted to capture Malta. Although the effort did not succeed, Turgut ravaged the neighboring towns and, in July 1551, the island of Gozo, laying it to waste and capturing thousands of slaves. In August 1551, he attacked and captured Tripoli (Libya), which had been a possession of the Maltese Knights since 1530. As reward, the Sultan gave him Tripoli and the surrounding territory along with the title of Sanjak Bey (Province Governor).
In 1552 Sultan Suleiman appointed Turgut Reis commander-in-chief of the Ottoman fleet which he dispatched to Italy (on the basis of a treaty between the Sultan and King Henry II of France) and Turgut Reis defeated the Spanish fleet of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria near Ponza. Turgut Reis ravaged Calabria in 1553, launched a raid against Elba, and took Bonifacio and Bastia on the island of Corsica, and was appointed Beylerbey (Chief Regional Governor) of the Mediterranean waters. When Bonifacio surrendered instead to the French, Turgut Reis tried to capture Piombino and Portoferraio on the island of Elba, but eventually gave up and returned to Constantinople. In 1554 he appeared once more on the Calabrian coast, but soon retreated to Durazzo. In 1559 he repelled a Spanish attack on Algiers. Throughout this entire period he and his captains continued to prey upon Christian shipping in the Mediterranean.
In the meantime, he had made enemies of many of the nominally Ottoman, but practically independent rulers in Tunis and the adjoining hinterland, and several of them concluded an alliance in 1560 with Viceroy Cerda of Sicily, who had orders from King Philip II of Spain to join his forces in an expedition to capture Tripoli. This campaign ended in failure when the Ottoman fleet under the command of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis defeated the Holy League of Philip II at the Battle of Djerba.
When Sultan Suleiman ordered the attack on Malta in 1565, Turgut Reis joined the Ottoman forces with 16,000 men and 15 ships. He died, however, on 23 June 1565 on the ramparts of Fort Saint Elmo. On 18 June 1565, during the bombardment of the fort, a cannon shot from Fort St. Angelo across the Grand Harbour struck the ground close to the Turkish battery. Debris from the impact mortally injured Turgut Reis, who lived five more days before he died, just long enough to hear the news of the capture of Fort St. Elmo. He was buried in Tripoli.
Several warships of the Turkish Navy have been named after Turgut Reis.
Turgut Reis continues to enjoy great fame and respect in modern Turkey, where the city of his birth is named Turgutreis after him.