handed out small arms. However, a well-timed volley of chain shot from Rubi hit at least two defenders, tearing them apart. The carpenter aboard Reniera e Soderina confronted his captain, telling him to surrender or face a mutiny. The captain consented, and Ward captured Reniera e Soderina with no further fighting. According to Andrew Barker her cargo was "esteemed to be worth two millions in the least." The English government didn't concur. They estimated the cargo to be worth only £500,000. Still, a report from the Venetian Ambassador in London told the privy council that Venice was close to declaring war on England due to Ward's piracy. That ambassador, Secretary Esposizioni, wrote: "That famous pirate, Ward, so well-known in this port for the damage he has done, is beyond a doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England. He has refitted a Venetian ship Soderina and turned her into a berton, with forty pieces of bronze artillery on the lower, and twenty on the upper deck. He has given his old ship to Captain [Graves] and these two and some other four ships form six fighting ships in all." The English Ambassador in Venice assured the Council "As to Ward, who captured the Soderina and transformed her into a berton, he will meet with a warm reception if he comes into these waters." Conversion to Islam Following his return to Tunis in June 1607, Ward outfitted Reniera e Soderina into a powerful Man-o-War. The crew cut at least 20 new gun ports into her hull to accommodate all 60 brass guns. He set out to sail in early 1608. Then, in March, a ship spotted wreckage of a ship off the coast of Greece, and rumors began to spread that it was Reniera e Soderina and John Ward was dead. Ward asked James I of England for a royal pardon which was refused, due to a threat of war from Venice, as Ward had attacked many Venetian ships, and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. Uthman Dey, an Ottoman officer of Tunis, kept his word and granted him protection. He accepted Islam along with his entire crew, changed his name to Yusuf Reis with a nickname of Chakour or Chagour as he used an axe in his piracy, and married an Italian woman while he continued to send money to his English wife. In 1612 a play called A Christian