Portuguese "Nau" liberates his firepower.
Portuguese soldiers in Asia.
The first Governor of India, D. Afonso de Albuquerque, a military genius of the highest degree, commanded a fleet of 6 ships manned by 400 men, and entered Ormuz Bay, being surrounded by 250 warships and a 20.000 men army on land ready to dispatch the small Portuguese flotilla.
When the King of Ormuz sent aboard an emissary to question Albuquerque, the great Commander told the messenger one phrase: Surrender yourselves !!!
This must have provoked an inner laugh from the messenger who left.
When the battle begun, Albuquerque made his fleet circle like a carrousel and destroyed most of the ships. He then proceeded to conquer Ormuz with 400 men.
How could this be achieved one must ask. The technical explanation may make some sense, but will not explain the courage of taking such a risk.
Albuquerque’s canons were equipped with breeches that did not require the canons to be brought backwards to be loaded. It meant that while the enemy’s canons fired a shot, the Portuguese canons could fire six, with a range of 1.800 meters against 700 meters of the enemy’s canons. The next issue is that the Portuguese artillery men had discovered the propulsive effect of water. If you throw a stone at a low angle near the surface of the water, the stone will be propelled by the water’s surface and gain more speed.
The second row of canons were placed very near the floating line and the stronger fire power was further enhanced by the water effect, causing the steel balls to not only hit the ship but hit the one behind the first one. Being fired at close to the floating line, the ships would start sinking very fast.
Then one must be aware that the Portuguese knew they were always outnumbered, a certanity that led them to employ all their courage and determination in the fights and battles they engaged"
PORTUGUESE EMPIRE 16th CENTURY
1500, The fleet of 13 ships commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral carried between 1200-1500 men (crew and soldiers)
. 1500+ In subsquent years, fleets commanded by Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, Lopo Soares de Albergaria, Francisco de Almeida e Tristão da Cunha carried about 2000 men.
-1509, The fleet of 15 ships commanded by D. Fernando Coutinho, Marshall of Portugal, carried 3000 men.
-1528- The advances in naval construction would allow the transport of more men, that were desesperately needed to serve in the portuguese fortresses along the coastline of Africa and India. In just 13 ships, commanded by Nuno da Cunha, 4000 men were sent.
| Diu | |
| — city — | |
  Diu |
"Fought on February 3, 1509 in the Indian Sea, near the port of Diu, India, between the Portuguese Empire and a joint fleet of the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut and the Sultan of Gujarat, with technical naval support from the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Ragusa, the Portuguese victory was critical for its strategy of control of the Indian Sea, setting its trade dominance for almost a century, and thus greatly assisted the growth of the Portuguese Empire, marking the beginning of the European colonial dominance in the Asia. It also marks the spillover of the Christian-Islamic power struggle, in Europe and the Middle East, into the Indian Ocean which was the dominant region of international trade at that time.
Diu city and the Portuguese fort (British engraving, 1729).
Diu in the early of XVIth century, in Braun et Hogenberg, 1600
