Manuscript letter, secretarial hand, signed by Sir Harry Burrard Neale, 3pp., mailing folds, folio, Revenge off Madeira, 17th July 1824 An interesting and detailed letter on the battle strategies of the British Navy fighting Pirates from Algiers.  Sir Harry Burrard Neale was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, 1823-1826, a post which, by the rule then in force, carried with it a nomination as G.C.M.G. The Barbary Pirates were mainly Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from the Barbary States. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture slaves for the Barbary slave trade. Barbary pirates captured thousands of merchant ships and repeatedly raided coastal towns. The Barbary states had difficulty upholding the total prohibition of slave-raiding, with Algier in particular continuing its slave-raiding despite it being outlawed.  In 1824 the last ruler of Algiers, Husayn Dey, expelled the British consul. In March 1824, A British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neale was sent to reinforce the treaty of 1816 with the Dey of Algiers. Arriving off the port of Algiers on 11 July, there was a short engagement with over thirty Algerine gunboats a few days later before withdrawing. Amiral Neale then returned two weeks later to be initially met with the fire of the Algerine batteries and shipping, but after threatening to bombard the town negotiations were undertaken and they brought a resolution to the disagreement.Algerian piracy did not entirely cease until France conquered the state in 1830. This General Memo was sent “To the Captains and Commanders of His Majesty’s Ships and Vessels off Algiers”. It is a lengthy direction with instructions of how to navigate between the pirates' gun boats and their batteries.  Neale orders special care when engaging the enemy ships “so as not to separate the Boats, or to allow the Enemy to cut them off by unguardedly advancing too far toward the land, and thus leaving an opening calculated to favour such an attempt. “ For attacking the pirates ships he orders them to “arrange the Boats so that those from each ship may act together, and conjointly open their cannonade upon one Gun Boat only at a time, always endeavouring to draw the Enemy within reach of the fire from the Ships of War, and acting generally more upon the defensive than the offensive.” He finally urges “that the Enemy should if possible be surprised, either under cover of the night, or the smoke from the Guns, so as to gain in the first instance considerably upon them, or else the Boats of the Squadron would soon be within reach of Grape Shot from the Enemy’s Guns.”