Cossack Navy 16th - 17th Centuries

   During the 15th Century, many freevolius people in Ukraine started to migrate to the South of the Country and settle among the Dnipro river banks.  These lands were under constant Tartar threat and therefore no Royal authority extened onver them making these lands free and attractive to those man who knew how to defend themselves.  These men became exelent warriors and even began to raid the neigbouring regions and the Black Sea coast.  Soon an fortress called Sitch was built (constructed in 1550's)  by Prince Vyshnevetskyand it became a strong hold for all the cossacks. 
     Although cossack sea raids were already common by 16th century, they really became popular in the 17th century.  The most successfull ones occured in early 17th century under the leadership of Hetman (general) Petro Sahajdachnyj

In 1606 the cossack fleet raided Turkish fortress Akerman (Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky) and fortres of Warna.  This was one of the larges raids yet, and cought attention of all Europe. 

In 1609 cossacks again burned the cities of Kylia and Izmail.

In 1613 a number of Krymian cities were burned.  The Turkish sultan send his Black Sea armada to stop the raiders, but the cossacks attacked the Turkish ships at night completelly defeating the armada and capturing 6 large galleys.

In 1614 another two raids were carried out and although the first one failed due to the storm, but the second time, the city of Trapezynd was destoyed.  The cossack navy then continued and burned  to the ground the city of Sinop, burning the Turkish galleys in the docks. 

Cossacks storming city of Kafa

In 1617 the cossack navy again left for another raid and meet the Ottoman fleet.  In the outcome the Turks were defeated once more and their Admiral was killed in that battle. 

More daring sea raids occured in the years from 1618 until 1630's.  Throughout that time the raids would be carried almost each year. 
In the year 1625 the cossacks raided Turkey three times again burning parts of Istambul forcing the Sultan to flee his palace. 

Cossack Ships
The cossack ship called "chaika" is  the direct dissendant of the Wiking Long ship.  They were long boats about 40 meters long and

Hetman Sahajdachnyj

In the spring of 1615 a cossack fleet consisting of 80 boats even managed to reach Istambul the capital of Ottoman Empire and burned the suburbs of the city.  On they way back, they were attacked by the Turkish navy, but won the battle and captured more galleys.  Before returning to Sitch from such successfull campaign cossacks still managed to plunder the fortress of Ochakiv.
In 1616 a major sea battle occured between the cossacks and the Ottomans, but once again the Turks were defeated.  The cossacks captured 12 galleys and as many as 100 ships.  With their fleet increased they plundered Kafa - one of the major cities in Crimea and managed to free couple of hundreds of Christian slaves.   Same year 2000 cossacks wentured to Asia Minor taking over cities Miner and Trapezynd and sinking another Ottoman navy composed of 6 large galleys.  Once they reached Bosphorus and plundered the surrounding country side, returning home through Azov Sea.

were able to fit 80 to 100 people.  Ulike other ships, Chaika had two sterns one at the back and one at the front, making the ship very manevrable.  Single mast  had only one large sqare sail and could be taken down during before the battle.  Long bundles of reeds were attached at the ports.  This made the ship more stable during the storms and also provided exra protection from the canon balls.  Even when Chaika was damaged during the battle, the reeds prevented it from sinking and still keept it afloat, making it possible to navigate.  Chaikas were armed with 8 - 10 falkonets (small canons).
Cossacks also used bigger ships, like captured Ottoman galleys, but these were much harder to navigate in the shallow Dnipro waters and thus were not as popular.  All the ships would be built around Sitch fortess, and other naval equipment would be supplied from Kiev and other cities.  Chaikas could be built very fast, and thus cossack fleets reached up to 300 - 400 ships. 

Battle Tactics

Well developped cossack naval tactics was the key to numerous victories over the Turks.    Cossacks with their Chaikas were able to attack much larger enemy forces and still defeat them.  As an enemy ship was spotted, the Cossacks tried to keep their ships positioned in such manner that the sun would always be behind them,  making it harder for the enemy to nottice their low laying Chaikas.  As Cossacks attacked, a constant fiering was mantained - Only a selected group would shoot, while others were reloding the muskets.   This constant fire was mantained as Chaika approched the galley, and by the

Example of Cossack Chaika 1647.

time actual bordning took place, half of the enemy cure was already killed.  The low profile of Chaika was also harder to aim at, and even when the ships were hit, the reeds prevented the sinking, making them virtualy unstopable. 

The main pupose of Cossack raids were the riches from the merchat ships and Eastern goods in the cities.  However their ideology made them different from other pirates.  Cossacks viewed themselves as a sort of Christian knights, who seen their raids as a  crusade against  the Ottoman Empire, fighing with the Muslims and freeing the Christian prizoners.  Cosack naval raids were highly appreciated by other European powers, due to constant war with the Ottoman Empire.  In the 16th century Cossacks were hired by the Hapsburgs of Austria to wage war with the turks.  In 1630's they were once more hired by the Polish king to fight in the Baltic, sinking two Swedish ships in the first week of the campaign.  Towards the middle of the 17th the cossacks were engaged in the war with Poland and the naval campaigns became less important, re-emerging in the beginning of 18th century.