An Episode in the Great Northern War: Swedish Warships in the Gulf of Riga from May to June, 1701
An Episode in the Great Northern War: Swedish Warships in the Gulf of Riga from May to June, 1701
Mikus Žagata
The Great Northern War is an event that is only partially researched in Latvian historiography. Though a few events (particularly those important for political reasons) have been often mentioned in articles almost none of them are based on research done from archives. Mārīte Jakovļeva has devoted two series of articles on this period in the journal of Latvian History Institute. She has based these articles on material in the archives of Swedish Governors of Vidzeme. While events on land battlefields during the war in modern day territory of Latvia are at least mentioned in Latvian historical works, those that happened in the Baltic Sea have been neglected in spite of the important role that Swedish naval forces fulfilled during the war.
The Great Northern war was begun by Saxons who attacked Swedish Livonia on February 11, 1700. Within about a month both Swedish strongholds (Kobronskansts and Daugavgrīva fortress) on left shore of Daugava had fallen making Saxons masters of the mouth of Daugava. Riga was therefore cut off from its main connection to western markets – trading came to a halt and money from customs stopped coming in. This situation made traders consider using alternative trading ports. At the same time Riga had to carry the heavy burden of paying for the war effort. Since war lasted over a year, solution had to be found.
In February of 1701, Governor General of Swedish Livonia Erik Dahlberg informed Swedish king, Charles XII, about the threats to trade. They were considered serious enough by Sweden to send two warships in May to patrol the coast of Courland (Kurzeme). Their main goals were to hinder ships from entering and leaving Daugava, to guard a provisional cargo transshipment point at a beach in Vecāķi and to help to unload and load goods from and onto the trading ships. Crews of the warships experienced problems with provision of food and drinks as well as salaries but Riga was not in a position to help them. There was also ambiguity in the orders given to ships by king and by the Swedish Admirality. Kings decision was that ports of Liepāja and Ventspils be blocked while the two Swedish ships seem to have patrolled the Gulf of Riga instead. In the beginning of June one more ship and then another in July were dispatched to patrol the outer coast of Courland. After the battle of Spilve the ships patrolling the Gulf of Riga were ordered to help Swedish land forces to retake the Daugavgrīva fortress which surrendered only in December of 1701.
After this the flow of goods through Riga resumed though it is unclear to what extent. Flaws in the plans of Governor General Dahlberg clearly still existed since some of the ships that were prevented from leaving Riga by the Swedish warships were later allowed to sail to Karlskrona in Sweden.