Battle of Calicut (1502)

Battle of Calicut Part of Portuguese battles in the Indian Ocean Date 5-6 January 1502 Location Calicut, India Result Portuguese victory Belligerents Portuguese Empire Calicut Arab privateers Commanders and leaders Vasco da Gama Khoja Kassein Cojambar Strength 10 carracks 6 caravels 20 large ships 40 gun-mounted sambuks Hundreds of smaller ships Casualties and losses Low Very heavy

Portuguese battles in the Indian Ocean Cannanore (1501) Calicut (1502) Pandarane (1504) Cochin (1504) Cannanore (1506) Anjadiva (1506) Ormuz (1507) Cannanore (1507) Chaul (1508) Dabul (1508) Diu (1509) Goa (1510) Malacca (1511) Calicut (1526) Chalium (1531) Diu (1538) Suez Expedition (1541) Diu (1546) Aden (1548) Hormuz campaign Muscat Gulf of Oman Malacca (1568) Malacca (1606) Cape Rachado (1606) Swally (1612) Ceylon (1612-13) Persia–Portugal war (1615-1622) Ormuz (1622) Action of one February (1625) River Duyon (1629) Goa (1638) Mombasa (1696-98) Calicut (1752)

The naval Battle of Calicut was a military encounter between the 16 ships (10 carracks and six caravels) of the 4th Portuguese Armada and a fleet led by two Arabic corsairs formed under the orders of the Zamorin of Calicut.

After the fleet of Vasco da Gama reunited with 6 caravels of the patrol fleet of Vicente Sodré, the Portuguese inflicted a heavy defeat on Calicut. In one of the first recorded instances of a naval line of battle, Gama's spice naus and escort caravels sailed in a line end-to-end, concentrating all their immense firepower as they passed against the twenty large Arab ships of Cojambar, before they could get organized, sinking a number of them and doing immense damage to the remainder. After the battle, the Portuguese returned to Cannanore.