First, I am going to look at what our estimates for the Ottoman navy was before the Battle of Lepanto. Second, I am going to look at how the Ottoman navy was regrouped and reconstructed. Third, I am going to look at if the rebuilt Ottoman navy was competitive with the Holy League.

Estimates for the Size of the Ottoman Fleet Before the Battle of Lepanto

The size of the Ottoman fleet directly before the Battle of Lepanto varies significantly depending upon what source you are looking at. Most authors only give a rough estimate recorded by the Holy League from various sources. In Malcolm's Agents of Empire : Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World, he notes four reports of the Ottoman's fleet before the Battle of Lepanto:

• In July 1571, an escaped Venetian slave said that the Ottoman fleet is comprised of 193 galleys and galiots, as well as another 107 smaller ships.
• In August 1571, another sources says that the Ottoman fleet is comprised of 180 galleys and 100 other ships.
• In August 1571, an escaped Spanish slave said that the Ottoman fleet is comprised of 155 galleys and 80 smaller ships.
• Later, another source says that the Ottoman fleet is comprised of 150 galleys and 150 smaller ships.

According to these four sources, the Ottoman fleet stood somewhere between 230 and 300 ships. This wide range even confounded the Holy League, which struggled on what to make of this information. This confusion is shown in Marquis Ascanio della Corgna report to Don Juan, the lead commander of the fleet when he wrote "...and as for the number and quality of the ships in the Ottoman fleet, the reports are so various that I cannot judge very well if it is smaller or greater than ours."

According to the contemporary, Venetian historian Paulo Paruta in his The Wars of Cyprus, the Holy League's fleet was recorded at being around 250 ships the day before the Battle of Lepanto. Of these ships, he claims that around 200 were galleys, 6 were galleasses, and the remaining were flyboats.

Today, the general historical consensus is that the Holy League's fleet was indeed smaller than the Ottoman's. This claim is supported in Finkel's Osman's Dream and Malcolm's previously cited work. However, the exact number of Ottoman ships is still fuzzy. Therefore, we may consider the Ottoman fleet to have at least 250 ships. But, while the Ottomans had the larger fleet, the Holy League's fleet was better equipped, better supplied, better manned, and featured Venetian galleasses, which devastated the Ottoman ships.

The Rebuilding of the Ottoman Navy

The Battle of Lepanto was a disastrous defeat for the Ottoman Empire, which was shook to its core. Malcolm recounts a Venetian diplomat's claim that people in Istanbul were prepared to flee to Anatolia and that the Sultan, Selim II, sent out a flurry of messages to the governors of Greece, that an attack could be imminent. The latter account indicates that the Ottoman navy was indeed in complete disarray - almost completely destroyed - and would not be able to defend the waters around Greece.

Soon after their defeat at Lepanto, during the winter of 1571-1572, the Ottoman navy began rapidly rebuilding. In fact, a navy that could rival the League's was constructed in about six months, while the Holy League recovered in friendly ports. The first step, however, was to gather any remaining ships, as stated by Malcolm:

One of the Sultan’s first orders, on 28 October, had instructed [Uluç Ali Pasha] to gather all the ships he could find and bring them in the direction of Istanbul; he had managed to pick up 40 more Ottoman vessels from the Aegean islands, which enabled him to make a grand and reassuring entrance into the Golden Horn with a fleet of 87 ships.

Uluç Ali Pasha commanded the Ottoman left wing during the battle and escaped with his squadron. So, we can possibly assume that some of these ships were from the battle. Furthermore, from the 40 vessels collected from the Aegean Sea, we can assume that some combat-worthy ships were not used during the battle or were retrofitted to serve as combat or auxiliary ships. However, it is unclear whether these vessels were galleys, or lighter and lesser-equipped ships. Nonetheless, this marked whatever remained of the Ottoman navy and the beginning of an incredible quick rebuilding period.

The contemporary Ottoman historian, Mustafa Selaniki, details:

With Gods help, without delay, within 120 days, a rebuilt imperial fleet composed of 134 galleys, baştardas and mavnas propelled with scaloccio oars and filled with combatants and weapons and janissaries and members of the bölüks, all able and select warriors, made its appearance at sea by the day of.. spring equinox, this time with such majesty and pomp that experienced intelligent experts became mute when trying to define and explain [this resurrection]: [For], God be praised, through the excellent judgment and measures of the great vizier a task had been accomplished that astounded the enemies of the religion...

This quote is presented in Soucek's Navals Aspects of the Ottoman Conquests of Rhodes, Cyprus and Crete.

As stated by Selaniki, the Ottomans were able to rebuild their fleet in under six months. The resulting fleet was comparable to the size of the navy before the Battle of Lepanto. However, while the Ottomans were able to rebuild their fleet with surprising speed, it was not tested in any serious manner for the rest of the Venetian-Ottoman War.

In addition, as the contemporary historian Mustafa Ali records:

the blow of the sword has descended upon able captains expert in naval matters, and at least a generation will pass before each one of them is supplanted with a man of similar caliber...

Another problem lied in finding knowledgeable sailors to lead the Ottoman navy. The defeat at Lepanto not only destroyed ships, but also resulted in the deaths of many of the top commanders of the Ottoman navy.