[1] On 27 July 1506 Cappello was received by King Henry VII of England, who awarded him trading privileges, knighted him, and gave him the right to include the Tudor rose in his own arms.

[1] On the return journey, Cappello's good fortune was again apparent: attacked by Genoese warship that thought he was a pirate, and brought to Cagliari, he not only managed to have his identity confirmed there, but also gathered new merchandise to the value of 6,000 ducats.

[1] On his return to Venice on 28 November 1506, his ships, laden with goods, made a great impression and secured him considerable wealth, which Cappello employed in pursuing a political career.

Cappello found the fortifications of Famagusta utterly insufficient to face an Ottoman attack, and denounced the behaviour of the Venetian officials on the island as "scandalous".

Being firmly convinced of the "bad faith" of the Ottomans, he devoted himself to strengthening the defences of the city, which he achieved with only a modest additional monthly spending of 400 ducats.

[1] Conscious of the fleet's problems, Cappello made specific demands to accept the position, requiring the government to furnish sufficient men, hardtack, and funds.

Reappointed to his post in 1534, in his reports to the Senate, he elaborated on the lack of hardtack, the desertion of his men to the Emperor's better-paying forces, the inadequacy of the fortifications in the Republic's overseas possessions (especially Zara, Sebenico, and Corfu), and the inefficiency of the naval construction system.

[1] As the historian Achille Olivieri points out, however, Cappello was no reformer: his outlook remained grounded in practical, everyday reality eschewing great risks and ideals in favour of a Venetian state secure in its strength, immobile, and almost "removed from the disruptive dialectic of the historical process".

The fleet of Venice and its allies (chief among them Habsburg Spain) captured the fortress of Castelnuovo, leaving behind a Spanish garrison, but was defeated by the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538.