Warships under the Russian flag first appeared on the Baltic Sea in 1570, long before the birth of Peter I, whose name is usually associated with the birth of the Russian fleet. The first Russian squadron was commanded by a former Danish pirate, but the crews of his ships included Russian sailors-pomors, archers and gunners. This small squadron fought for only a little more than 4 months, but it made a very big impression on everyone.
How could this have happened and where did the "order captain" and "sea otaman" Karsten Rode suddenly appear in the ranks of the seemingly traditionally land-based Russian army?
Choice of the sea
Ivan the Terrible, dissatisfied with foreign trade across the distant White Sea, has long looked longingly towards the western seas with their convenient ports and established trade relations.
The Russian state, which had won a victory over the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, was on the rise, and the large army, which had received successful combat experience, seemed to be able to solve much larger and more ambitious tasks. The inner circle of the young tsar ("Chosen Rada") insisted on war with the Crimean Khanate, which at that time represented the main threat to the security of Russia. In this case, the Austrian Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became Moscow's allies, from which, in addition to purely military assistance, one could also expect supplies of weapons and, more importantly, technological cooperation (which Russia's western neighbors traditionally and very actively opposed). However, it was clear to everyone that the powerful Ottoman Empire would take the side of the Crimea, and therefore the war in the southern direction promised to be very difficult and prolonged, and its results seemed uncertain even to the greatest optimists. In addition, even in the event of a favorable outcome of hostilities and Russia gaining access to the Azov or Black Sea, the desired overseas trade remained hostage to the policy of the Great Port, which at any moment could block the Black Sea straits for Russian and allied ships. The Baltic Sea seemed much more "hospitable" and promising, since it was "divided" by several roughly equivalent states and the Hansa trade union, which traditionally and irreconcilably competed with each other. Under these conditions, Moscow diplomats would have the opportunity to take advantage of the natural political and economic contradictions of the participants in this long-standing "game".
It should be clarified that at that time Russia owned a small section of the coast of the Baltic Sea (Gulf of Finland) between Ivangorod and Vyborg with the mouths of the Neva, Luga and Narova rivers.
That is, the very access to the Baltic Sea was available, but there was no necessary infrastructure: port facilities, docks, warehouses, shipyards, hotels, convenient roads. Their construction required a lot of money, time and specialists, which were simply not available in Russia at that time. But on the other hand, Ivan the Terrible had a casus belli (a reason for war) - quite legal from the point of view of contemporary international law. It was at this time that the truce between Moscow and Livonia expired, and in order to extend it, the Russian side demanded the payment of the so-called Yuryev tribute. The Livonian Order had to pay it since the time of the grandfather of the current tsar - Ivan III, but for 50 years it has never fulfilled its obligations. It is curious that the Livonian diplomats recognized the legitimacy and validity of Moscow's demands, but the order, which was in a state of deepest crisis, could not collect the required amount. As a result, in 1558 Russian troops entered Livonia.
The beginning of the Livonian War
This is how the Livonian War began, which lasted a quarter of a century and became one of the longest and most difficult in the history of our country. Its beginning was very successful, Narva was captured, for a while it became the main port of Russia (before that, the only sea route to Russia was along the Barents Sea around Scandinavia).
By the summer of 1559, almost the entire territory of Livonia with its ports was occupied by Russian troops, and a year later Prince Kurbsky took the Grand Master prisoner in a general battle. But Ivan underestimated the reaction of disgruntled neighbors, Sweden and Poland, who were not at all eager to "give" him the eastern Baltic states. The troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania captured Riga and Courland, declaring them part of Lithuania. Poland captured Revel in 1561, but the Swedes had their own plans for this city: in the same year they drove out the Poles in order to settle there for a long time. Under these conditions, Rzeczpospolita offered Ivan IV a rather advantageous peace - in exchange for part of the territory of Livonia. However, blinded by the first successes, the tsar demanded in return for the return of the lands of the Polotsk and Kiev principalities to Rus, which, of course, did not suit Poland. As a result, the land border of Russia from Chernigov to Vilna blazed up in major battles and many small skirmishes. The situation was no better with Sweden, whose ships intercepted all foreign ships sailing to the east with practically impunity. The Polish king Sigismund August, who does not have his own fleet, also wished for his piece of the pie and, for a share of the booty, provided pirates of all stripes and nationalities with free entry to Danzig and Pernau (Pärnu). The “Narva seafaring” so coveted for Ivan practically ceased, and the sea trade again moved to the White Sea. For help in organizing his own privateer fleet, Ivan IV turned to the Danes, who had long-standing accounts with the Swedes: the fact is that until the 1920s. In the 16th century, Sweden was part of the Danish kingdom, and relations between the neighbors were, to put it mildly, very strained. Then it was time for our hero to enter the stage.
God-fearing Danish pirate Carsten Rode
A native of West Jutland, Carsten Rode (it is believed that he was born around 1540) was once a merchant and captain of his own ship, but became famous not at all on the trading path. He gained fame in the Baltic as a privateer in the service of the Danish king Frederick II and his brother, Duke Magnus of Courland. However, there is every reason to believe that before entering the Russian service, this gallant sailor did not always bind himself to formalities, and often acted not as a privateer (who, in case of defeat, was supposed to be considered a prisoner of war), but as a real pirate. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Karsten Rode was tall and very strong, dressed neatly, if not smartly, and kept a personal barber on the ship. At the same time, he was known as a very pious person and for blasphemy he could throw any member of his crew overboard - "so as not to incur the wrath of God on the ship." In Hamburg and Kiel, this God-fearing man was sentenced to death in absentia, so the protection of a powerful sovereign, which would allow him to do what he loved on an almost legal basis, came in handy. It was personally recommended to Ivan the Terrible by the Danish king Frederick II, and this was one of those rare cases when a "foreign specialist" more than covered all the expenses incurred by the ever-empty Russian treasury.
According to the signed in 1570According to the agreement, the first Russian corsair was assigned a salary of 6 thalers per month, in exchange he undertook to deliver to Narva every third captured ship, the best cannon from the other two, and a tenth of the booty, which he had to sell exclusively in Russian ports. Noble captives were also subject to surrender to the Russian authorities, for whom one could hope to receive a ransom. The Russian governors were instructed to "keep that German shipbuilder and his comrades in great care and honor, helping them with whatever they need. And if God save Rode himself or which of his people falls into captivity, he should immediately redeem, exchange or otherwise release ". The crews of marque ships received salaries from the Russian treasury and did not have the right to booty. This contract, which takes into account all the nuances of the division of future prey, from the outside is very similar to the division of the skin of a bear that has not been killed, but the luck of Captain Rode surpassed the wildest expectations. With the money given to him, at the beginning of the summer of 1570, on the island of Ezel (Saaremaa), he bought a pink (fast and maneuverable small 2-3-mast ship, used mainly for reconnaissance), which he named "The Merry Bride".
Maritime exploits of Carsten Rode
Arming the ship with three cast iron cannons, ten leopards (less powerful guns), eight squeaks, two battle picks for breaking the sides and taking on board 35 crewmen, he went out to sea - and almost immediately the ship started to leak! Such a beginning could discourage anyone, but not Rohde, who, instead of returning to the port, ordered to sail further, continuously scooping up water. Near the island of Bornholm, they attacked a Swedish ship - a single-masted iceboat, sailing with a cargo of salt and herring.
Due to problems with a leak, the privateer had to make a lot of efforts to catch up with the enemy, but when they got close enough, the Swedes managed to damage the privateer ship from the very first salvo. The matter was decided by the experience of Captain Rode and the courage of the crew he had chosen: the buer was taken on board and brought to the island of Bornholm, which at that time belonged to Denmark. The Danes leased Bornholm to the Hanseatic League, which, in turn, did not object to privateers from different countries entering there (buying up the loot is also a kind of "business").
Here Rode repaired his ship and, having replenished the crew with both archers sent from Russia and his old acquaintances (among whom was the famous Norwegian privateer Hans Dietrichsen), he again brought his ships out to sea. Here they parted in different directions and after 8 days, not two, but four ships returned to Bornholm: each of the privateers led a captured ship. Further, Rode, at the head of a squadron of three ships equipped with 33 guns, attacked a Hanseatic merchant caravan of five ships, which was heading from Danzing to the ports of Holland and Friesland with a cargo of rye. This time he managed to capture 4 ships.
Over the next two months, Rode captured 13 more ships, and in September 1570 a squadron of six ships was under his command. Now he became the complete master of the eastern Baltic and a prominent figure in international politics, diplomatic correspondence was filled with helpless complaints about the "terrible corsair of the Muscovites."
The Hanseatic city of Danzig was the first to oppose the "Moskalit robber", sending practically all of its warships on the "hunt". This campaign ended in complete failure, since the admiral of the Danish navy based on Bornholm, expressing a desire to take part in the capture of the corsair, treacherously lured the Hanseaticans to Copenhagen. Near the capital's harbor, Danzian ships with sudden fire from all guns drove the Danzig ships into the port, where they were arrested as belonging to the allies of Sweden, with which Denmark was at war. And the frantic "Muscovite corsair" continued his raids across the Baltic, luck accompanied him and in less than a year his small squadron managed to capture 22 ships, the cost of which (together with the cargo), according to Ivan the Terrible, amounted to half a million efimkov (Ioakhimstaler).
In the fall of 1570, the Swedish navy joined the hunt for the corsair. In the first battle with the Swedes, Rode lost several of his ships, but broke through to Copenhagen - under the protection of coastal batteries. But the next skirmish was already more successful: three Swedish frigates lay in wait for Rode, following the trapped merchant ship. Rode, who attacked this ship, was attacked from the rear, but even from this unenviable situation he emerged victorious: all three frigates were taken on board.
The flip side of Karsten Rode's victories was his growing independence. Ignoring the ports controlled by Russia, he sold most of the production at the main base in Bornholm and Copenhagen, and his raids more and more shifted from the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea to his native and familiar west. At the same time, his actions began to harm already and at first they were quite loyal to him to Ivan the Terrible's allies - the Danes. In addition, diplomatic pressure from Sweden, Poland and the Hansa intensified on Denmark, and the affairs of Ivan the Terrible in Livonia were getting worse and worse, the value of Ivan the Terrible as an ally fell every month. Almost immediately after the triumphant victory over the Swedish frigates, Karsten Rode, who had not suffered a single defeat and did not suspect anything, was arrested by the Danes (October 1570), his property and ships were confiscated, and the "sea otaman" himself was placed in the castle of Halle.
The last years of Karsten Rohde's life
Rode spent about two years under arrest. However, the conditions of his detention were not too harsh. Moreover, in 1573 Frederick II personally visited Rode, after which he ordered to transfer him to Copenhagen. Here Rode lived, though under the supervision of the authorities, but in a private apartment. The royal courts of Stockholm and Warsaw, as well as the magistrates of several Hanseatic cities, unsuccessfully sought his execution or extradition, but Frederick II remained deaf to these requests. Ivan the Terrible remembered his "order captain" and "sea otaman" only five years later, when, apparently, he decided to recreate his fleet in the Baltic. He sent a letter to the King of Denmark, in which he was belatedly surprised at the arrest of Carsten Rode and asked to be sent to him, but received no answer. The traces of the first Russian sea captain were lost in the past, and in none of the documents of those years the name of the former "master of the Baltic" is found again. Most likely, he simply died quietly in his bed, on the shore. But not everyone wants to believe in such an ordinary death of the famous captain, who, of course, would be more appropriate to end his life on the deck of a sinking ship. After all, he was still quite a young and full of strength man at the age of about 35 years. Some researchers suggest that he was able to buy off justice (Frederick II allegedly offered him freedom in exchange for "compensation" to the treasury in the amount of 1000 thalers) or to flee from arrest in order to go out to sea hunting again - already in other waters. Others do not exclude the possibility that he was accepted into the royal service and, under a different name, participated in expeditions to the West Indies and Africa, which were organized by Denmark at that time.
