All through the earlier months of 1538 the dockyards of Constantinople hummed with a furious activity, for Soliman had decreed that the maritime campaign of this year was to begin with no less than one hundred and fifty ships.  His admiral, however, did not agree with this decision; to the Viziers he raged and stormed.  “Listen,” he said, “O men of the land who understand naught of the happenings of the sea.  By this time Saleh-Reis must have quitted Alexandria convoying to the Bosphorus twenty sail filled with the richest merchandise; should he fall in with the accursed Genoese, Doria, where then will be Saleh-Reis and his galleys and his convoy?  I will tell you:  the ships in Genoa, the galleys burned, Saleh-Reis and all his mariners chained to the rowers’ bench.”

The Viziers trembled, as men did when Barbarossa stormed and turned upon them those terrible eyes which knew neither fear nor pity.  “We be but men,” they answered, “and our lord the Sultan has so ordained it.”

“I have forty galleys,” replied the corsair; “you have forty more.  With these I will take the sea; but, mark you,” he continued, softening somewhat, “you do right to fear the displeasure of the Sultan, and I also have no wish to encounter it; but vessels raised and equipped in a hurry will be of small use to me.  In the name of Allah the compassionate and his holy Prophet give me my eighty galleys and let me go.”

In Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa sound strategical instinct went hand in hand with the desperate valour of the corsair.  To dally in the Golden Horn while so rich a prey was at sea to be picked up by his Christian foes was altogether opposed to his instincts:  never to throw away a chance in the game of life had ever been his guiding principle.

Soliman, great man as he undoubtedly was, had not the adamantine hardness of character which enabled his admiral to risk all on the hazards of the moment; or possibly the Grand Turk was deficient in that clearness of strategical instinct which never in any circumstances forgoes a present advantage for something which may turn out well in a problematical future.  Soliman, sore, sullen, and unapproachable, dwelt in his palace brooding over the misfortunes which had been his lot since the death of Ibrahim.  Barbarossa, who so recently had lost practically all that he possessed, and who had reached an age at which most men have no hopes for the future, was as clear in intellect, as undaunted in spirit, as if he had been half a century younger:  to be even once more with those by whom he had been defeated and dispossessed was the only thing now in his mind.  The capture of Saleh-Reis and his convoy would be a triumph of which he could not bear to think.  Further, it would add to the demoralisation of the sea forces of the Sultan, which were sadly in need of some striking success after the defeats which had so recently been their portion.  The Sultan had decided that one hundred and fifty ships were necessary; his admiral thought otherwise.  There was too much at stake for him to dally at Constantinople; his fiery energy swept all before it, and in the end he had his way.  On June 7th, 1538, he finally triumphed over the hesitations of the Viziers and put to sea with eighty sail.