ly ship to ship. Doria was an old sailor, perhaps the
most experienced leader in the fleet, except the veteran Veniero. If he had
been less of a tactician, perhaps he would have come into action sooner.
And it is strange that, while playing for position against Ulugh Ali, he
did not realize that if, instead of continually increasing his own distance
from the centre, he had at any moment turned back towards it, he could thus
force the Algerine admiral either to close with him or leave him free to
overwhelm the Turkish main squadron by enveloping its left.

It was Ulugh Ali, not Doria, who turned back and ventured on a stroke like
this. The Algerine had, after all, outmanoeuvred the over-clever Genoese.
The course taken by the two squadrons had, with the drift of the current,
placed Ulugh Ali's rearmost ships actually somewhat nearer the seaward
flank of the main fighting lines than Doria's galleys, which his squadron
also outnumbered. A signal ran down the long line of the Turkish left, and
while some of the galleys turned and bore down on Doria's division, the
rest swung round and, before Doria had quite realized what was happening,
Ulugh Ali, with the heaviest ships of his division, was rushing towards the
fight in the centre.

The brunt of the Algerine's onset fell upon a dozen galleys on Don Juan's
right flank. The furthest out, the flagship of the Knights of Malta, was
attacked by seven of the enemy's vessels. Next to her lay the papal galley
"Fiorenza," the Piedmontese "Margarita di Savoia," and seven or eight
Venetian ships. All these were enveloped in the Turkish attack which
engaged the line in front, flank and rear. There were no enemies the
Algerines hated so fiercely as the Knights of Malta, but, even though they
had the flagship of the Order at such a fearful disadvantage, they did not
venture to close with it until they had overwhelmed the knights and their
crew with a murderous fire of bullets and arrows at close quarters. Then
they boarded the ship and disposed of the few surviving defenders. The
commander, Giustiniani, wounded by five arrows, and a Sicilian and a
Spanish knight alone survived, and these only because they were left for
dead among the heaps of slain that encumbered the deck. Ulugh Ali secured
as a trophy of his success the standard of the Knights. In the same way the
"Fiorenza" and the "San Giovanni" of the papal squadron, and the
Piedmontese ship, were rushed in rapid succession. On the "F