Moulay Ismael's Lost Navy: The Mamora Shipyard and Morocco's Atlantic Dream

In the early 18th century, Sultan Moulay Ismael launched an ambitious project to build a Moroccan navy from scratch. This episode dives into the construction of the shipyard at Mamora (modern Mehdia), the use of European renegades and Christian captives as shipwrights, and the diplomatic clash with England and Spain. We explore how the fleet raided as far as the Canary Islands, the logistics of slave labor in the yards, and why this naval dream ultimately failed. Key figures include the English renegade Captain John (Thomas?) Pellow, the French engineer Germain Moüette, and the corsair admiral 'Abdallah bin 'Aisha. We also touch on the ecological cost: the deforestation of the Mamora cork oak forest for ship timbers.

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