Navy of the Order of Saint John

The Order was sanctioned by a papal bull in 1113, and eventually its role changed to include the defence of pilgrims as well.

[2] The Order captured the island of Rhodes from the Byzantine Empire in 1309, and subsequently established its base there.

[4] The Order lost Rhodes to the Ottoman Empire after a six-month long siege in 1522.

The Order sent a carrack and four galleys to support the Spanish Empire and its allies in the conquest of Tunis in 1535.

One galley was built at the expense of Grand Master Claude de la Sengle.

[6] When the city of Valletta began to be built in the 1560s, there were plans to build an arsenal and mandracchio for the Order's navy.

The arsenal was never built, and while work started on the mandracchio, it stopped and the area became a slum known as the Manderaggio.

[8] Three of the Order's ships participated in the Battle of Lepanto of 1571, which was a decisive victory for the Holy League.

The British broke up Dégo and Carthaginoise, but commissioned Athénien into the Royal Navy as HMS Athenienne.

A painting showing Maltese galleys capturing an Ottoman vessel in the Malta Channel in 1652.
Un navire maltais attaqué par des pirates algériens , painted by Philip James de Loutherbourg and depicting a skirmish between a Maltese galley and Algerian pirates .
The Battle of the Dardanelles of 1656, in which a Venetian-Hospitaller fleet defeated a larger Ottoman force. The commander of the Hospitaller fleet was Gregorio Carafa , who later became Grand Master of the Order.
17th century Maltese galley