Leo notes

Pirate notes

Cristel notes

The Portuguese captured Tangier in 1471, and held it for over a century. Consequently, sailors like Duarte knew its coastline well.

His careful description of surrounding towns and waters attest to the missions he conducted, surveying the coast and reporting to military and commercial ships.

                  Map of Tangiers in 1535

Tangiers had been a difficult city to capture (the Portuguese tried twice before succeeding in 1471) and they were not about to let it go!

Given the strategic importance of Tangiers, the city controlling the furthest western point of the Gibraltar Straight, many a Portuguese ship came to dock in its nearby waters. Here are the descriptions Duarte gives of the coast, both North and South of the Cape Spartel:

" The whole coast line between Ceuta and Spartel is a succession of very high mountains. Along the coast, the waters are so deep that boats can only set anchor close to land. Beyond Spartel, the coast line is flat, and the waters are shallow, without rocks, making it easy to set anchor." (Duarte, 234)

The most prominent landmark on the Tangiers coast was the Cape Spartel, the furthest reaching point into the Mediterranean. Today, a century old lighthouse marks the cliff, its 20 second rotation well known to all ships crossing Gibraltar.

A few miles from the lighthouse, on the road back to Tangiers, the elegant "Montagne" neighborhood displays its endless rows of villas and palaces, all remnants of the great 'international days' - an epoch which brusquely ended with Moroccan independence in 1956. Yet, 50 years of more modest life styles have not erased the memory of huge mansions, extravagant lifestyles and tremendous wealth. Tangier's 1920's tycoons were perhaps the only pirates the city every really housed!

The city' role should not however be underestimated in Pirate history. Tangier was a port of arrival for many a Spanish Jew or Muslim, fleeing from Christian persecution. "Jew's beach" at the foot of the Kasbah owes its name to the many refugees who landed there in the late 15th and early 16th century.
These refugees played a central part in the transfer of naval knowledge and technology to Moroccan corsairs.