Navarino’s loss drove Mehmed Ali to build his own fleet

Evidence

For two years Mehmed Ali set about repairing the damage he suffered in this Morean debacle in preparation for taking what, by then, he must have felt to be rightly his. (During this period he was approached by the French to undertake an expedition to capture the Barbary states of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers. After some consideration and a lot of diplomatic exchange, however, the Pasha realized that the expedition was too costly to merit taking the risks involved and that it would divert him from the provinces he strongly desired.) Following the destruction of his fleet in Navarino the Pasha was determined on acquiring a new fleet, this time not only by buying it from whomever would be kind enough to sell him ships, but also by attempting to build himself one in Egypt. With this end in mind he secured the services of a French engineer, M. de Cerisy, who started to construct an arsenal in Alexandria in June 1829. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 240

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s interest in the birth of the modern Egyptian army and navy: this is the founding of Egypt’s naval arsenal under French supervision.