Are imperialist navies trying to put an end your pirate fun? Now you can defend your Ottoman or Barbary Coast pirate lair with Eureka’s 28mm Turkish pirate mortar. This formidable looking piece, designed and sculpted by Alan Marsh, comes complete with five crew.
Of course, not all pirates looked like Errol Flynn, John Payne or Johnny Depp, nor did they all roam the Spanish Main in fast sloops and small three masters. Turban wearing Ottoman and Barbary Coast pirates terrorised Mediterranean shipping from the 16th to the early 19th Century, in fast, narrow hulled pirate galleys, powered by sails and oars rowed by dozens of unfortunate galley slaves.
The reliance on human muscle power and the galley’s poor performance in rough open waters tended to restrict these Mediterranean corsairs to relatively short cruises, operating out of land bases such as Algiers and Tripoli. Not surprisingly, by the mid 17th Century, these pirate havens began to attract the attention of angry European naval powers and eventually even squadrons of the US Navy. Ottoman and Barbary pirates were frequently forced to defend their home ports from behind land based fortifications containing artillery of all shapes and sizes.
In the spirit of this era we have decided to add a Turkish pirate mortar to our range of 28mm Turkish pirates. Typical of the guns that ringed notorious pirate bolt-holes like Tripoli; our mortar comes compete with a 5 man crew, including two individuals staggering forward with the next massive round. Not that any self respecting Ottoman or Barbary pirate should feel restricted to just one particular type of ammunition. Infamously, the pirates of Algiers responded to a French naval bombardment in 1683 by firing 30 French residents of the port out of their cannons at their French attackers! And in perhaps a definitive ‘diplomatic statement’, they ensured that one of the poor victims was the French consul.
As well as fending off the unwanted attentions of various navies, our mortar also lends itself to operations against other pirates such as the equally vicious Christian corsairs, who’s galleys operated out of Malta. Or it can look just as at home included in any post renaissance Ottoman land army.
If Turkish Pirates are not quite what you are after, we would like to offer a quick reminder that we also produce in 28mm more traditional Caribbean Pirates, Chinese Pirates, and our Colonial range includes some 28mm Dayaks suitable for South East Asian pirate campaigns.
Here are the catalogue details for the all the Turkish Pirates with the new release added –
28mm TURKISH PIRATES - NEW ADDITION Designed & sculpted by Alan Marsh Figures in brackets denote the number of variants. Variants are supplied randomly.
100PIR40 Turkish Pirate Captain (1) 100PIR41 Turkish Pirate First Mate (1) 100PIR42 Turkish Pirate with pole arm (4) 100PIR43 Turkish Pirate with scimitar (4) 100PIR44 Turkish Pirate with musket (5) 100PIR45 Turkish mortar and crew – 5 figures and mortar (1) NEW