Gabriel de Chambres Boisbaudran
Gabriel de Chambres Boisbaudran (died 28 September 1644) was a knight and naval commander of the Order of St John, based in Malta. He served as captain-general of its galleys from 1642 to 1644 and died during an attack on Ottoman shipping near Rhodes.[1][2]
The 1644 expedition
On 28 September 1644, Boisbaudran commanded six galleys in an attack on a large Ottoman vessel sailing from Istanbul towards Alexandria. The encounter took place in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The attackers captured the ship, but Boisbaudran was killed during the fighting.[2][1]
Historian Denis De Lucca places the operation within the Order's use of intelligence about valuable shipping. The captured vessel carried passengers as well as merchandise and valuables; the seizure therefore affected civilians as well as the armed crews.[2]
The Maltese squadron called at Crete on its return voyage. De Lucca links that stop with the subsequent conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Venice over the island. Boisbaudran's final expedition thus had consequences beyond the encounter at sea.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Guillaumier, Paul. “Balthazar de Demandolx”. Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire et du Patrimoine de l’Ordre de Malte, no. 39, p. 70. Public extract; in French.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 De Lucca, Denis. “The Order of Malta and Espionage Activity in the Sixteenth-century Mediterranean World”. Melita Historica, 17(4), 2019 issue, pp. 187–215, especially pp. 211–212.