He was assisted by the remaining crews and passengers of the pilgrim fleet whose appearance had contributed decisively to the victory at the Battle of Jaffa the previous year.

However, the number of ships available on the Christian side was apparently not sufficient for a complete blockade, as subsequent events also showed.

The besiegers, said to have numbered about 5,000 men, deployed catapults and a siege tower, which, after some prolonged fighting, eventually prompted the defenders to begin negotiations on the terms of the surrender.

But shortly before the surrender of Acre, 12 Muslim galleys coming from Tyre and Sidon and a large transport ship with men and war material entered the city's harbor, in which these reinforcements revived the will to fight.

After the failure at Acre, King Baldwin made another advance into Mount Carmel to clear it of the gangs of bandits who were still making the traffic routes around Haifa unsafe from there.