Video - The Heroic Sacrifice: Oruç Reis and the Battle of Sanaldo River

At the head of the pursuit detachment was a Spanish nobleman named Garcia de Tineo. After a long escape, they arrived at the Sanaldo river. If they crossed to the other side, they would be saved. Half of the forty sailors, all seriously wounded and exhausted from hunger, were able to cross the river with Oruç Reis. Meanwhile, the Spanish also caught up and surrounded the other 20 sailors waiting to cross the other side. They started begging Oruç Reis: "Don't leave us, father!..." This cry hit the heart of the great Turkish sailor. For a moment, he thought about running away, coming back with reinforcements and taking revenge, but his fatherly spirit dragged him to his children. They crossed to the opposite shore again with the sailors next to them. But by that time, almost all of his soldiers had been martyred. He and his remaining sailors attacked the enemy with a last effort. Unfortunately, he didn't even have the strength left in his arms to lift a sword. They all fell martyrs one by one. Although Oruç Reis killed several enemy soldiers with one arm, Don Garcia himself shot him in the chest with a spear. Then he martyred him by stabbing his sword into his heart. He separated his blessed head from his chest and sent it to the Governor-General of Algeria in Oran.