Templar Pirates? I have to tell you I'm having a hard time with this notion. I'm not sure I 'm feeling this one. Templar ships were rented on an as-needed basis, generally to transport new knights, pilgrims, and supplies—including horses—to Outremer. The city states of the Holy Land ,and not the French town. The primary port of debarkation was the fortified Crusader port of Acre, now Akko in Israel. The records that still exist indicate the Templars did own a handful of oared warfighting galleys... moreTemplar Pirates? I have to tell you I'm having a hard time with this notion. I'm not sure I 'm feeling this one. Templar ships were rented on an as-needed basis, generally to transport new knights, pilgrims, and supplies—including horses—to Outremer. The city states of the Holy Land ,and not the French town. The primary port of debarkation was the fortified Crusader port of Acre, now Akko in Israel. The records that still exist indicate the Templars did own a handful of oared warfighting galleys and at least four merchant/fighting caravels or cogs.Templar warfighting galleys and caravels were part of the fleet that besieged the sea tower and city of Damietta on the Nile in 1217 (see “‘Navies of God’: The Siege of Damietta,” June 2022, pp. 46–53). The chaplain Oliver of Paderborn records three engagements by Templar ships and implies that there were more. The first was during an early unsuccessful assault on the tower, when one Templar galley managed to moor on the tower’s small island but was driven off after enduring “no slight damage.” A second was when a Templar galley approached the shore-edge walls of the city but was destroyed by Greek fire.
The third engagement—more dramatic and heroic than the first two—occurred after the tower had fallen, as the Crusaders attempted to land beside the city. Oliver writes that the Saracens defending the city “eagerly climbed up the ship, and throwing themselves headlong into it, descended upon the Templars. When they fought there for a long time, the ship at last was pierced (whether by the enemy or our own men we do not know) and sought the depths, drowning Egyptians with Christians, so that the top of the mast scarcely appeared above the water.” Alluding to the biblical Samson destroying the Philistine temple, Oliver praises “those martyrs [who] dragged into the abyss of the waters along with themselves more than they could have killed with swords.” Then there's the sketchy story of Roger de Flor. The most historic account provided by the U.S. Navy only briefly mentions his association with the Templars. Roger de Flor originally was the protégé and first mate to a Templar lay-brother sergeant called Brother Vassayll is all it says. If I'm missing something ,somebody please enlighten me . As for now I see no proof of Templar Pirates . Perhaps I am wrong. Opinions?
