Suring the Waves: Scottish Admirals in Russia in their Baltic Context

the Russian navy and her distinctive Saltire insignia can be traced back to the inal years of General Patrick Gordon in his guise as Rear Admiral of the Russian navy. There is no doubt that after Gordon’s participation in Russia’s irst tentative naval manoeuvres off of Archangel in 1694, and the irst real amphibious operation against Azov in 1696 (in which Gordon had reverted to a land role), the Romanov dynasty attracted a notable presence of Scottish naval oficers to their cause. This reached something of a crescendo during the reign of Catherine the Great. Indeed, we ind that among the oficer class in the Russian navy during the eighteenth century there were admirals of all classes, as well as ships’ captains, lieutenants and numerous other oficers and men. Impressive as the sheer numbers of Scottish admirals in Russian service is, there is seldom an opportunity to see them in the context of wider maritime migration. And this is crucial, for without such an overview, we could ind ourselves constructing one of those uncritical histories which might over-celebrate the importance of these men and the relevance of their migration to Russia. That is not to say that they are not to be celebrated, or indeed that they were not important. It simply reiterates the obvious historical point which requires us to take a step back and view our subject matter in a different way. Rather than focus on simply one recipient country of Scottish maritime expertise – or indeed on one category of migrant – this essay will look to the Northern European world over a two-century time span

and follow the migration of maritime Scots into Scandinavia and Russia. For this purpose two categories have been selected: irstly those who attained the rank of 'admiral' in a foreign regular navy and secondly, as a control group, shipwrights. From this wider perspective it should be possible to trace patterns in maritime migration from Scotland to the Baltic region, albeit there may be some requirement to mention geographical areas beyond the conines of this to fully understand the various processes at work.
Space prevents a full discussion here of those Scots who served as naval admirals and senior commanders in either the Scottish Royal Navy (pre-1603), Stuart-British Royal Navy (1603-1688 or in the Royal Navy in the post-Union period. Sufice it to say that the Scots were fully represented at all ranks and not as devoid of naval expertise as one might expect, or, as Andrew Little has observed, ' [Scots] were found aboard British warships in large numbers, forming appreciable portions of the crews, with many later attaining senior rank '. 4 There is noscope here to investigate the numerous Scottish maritime forces deployed as privateers or naval allies to the powers under discussion. Rather the focus remains irmly on Scandinavia and Russia and opens with a review of the Scottish commanders in the service of one of Scotland's closest allies, Denmark-Norway.

Denmark-Norway
Without doubt one of the most important destinations for Scottish mariners in the early modern period was the kingdom of Denmark-Norway whose power derived from her navy. 5 The early part of the sixteenth century saw many famous (even infamous) Scottish privateers serve the various Danish monarchs. 6 However, after the regal alliance of 1589 which re-cemented the Stuart-Oldenburg alliance, this auxiliary service was turned into something more concrete. James VI (& I) recommended numerous naval oficers into 4 A. Little, 'A Comparative Survey of Scottish Service in the English and Dutch Maritime Communities, c.1650 -1707', in A. Grosjean and S. Murdoch (eds), Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period (Leiden, 2005), 339. 5 Steve Murdoch, Britain, Denmark-Norway and the House of Stuart, 1603-1660(East Linton, 2000/2003Robert I. Frost, The Northern Wars, 1558-1721(Harlow, 2000, 5. 6 W. Stanford Reid, Skipper from Leith: The History of Robert Barton of Over Barnton (Philadelphia, 1962), 152 and passim.
Christian IV's navy (Appendix II) right up until his death in 1625. 7 At least ive Scots held the position of 'admiral' during the reign of Christian IV, with a sixth serving as vice-admiral. 8 Their overall contribution to the Danish-Norwegian leet has been written up elsewhere, but it is worth reiterating a few general points. 9 For great periods during the reign of Christian IV, Scots were put in charge of large sections of his rivers and territorial waters. Alexander Durham, commanded the entire Baltic leet as its admiral between 1578 and 1586 and the North Sea leet from 1587 -99 in the same capacity. 10 Andrew Mowatt joined as a naval captain in 1580 and continued to serve as an admiral into the 1600s, particularly in the North Sea. 11 John Cunningham's main role involved the naval exploration of Greenland and the northern seas between 1605 -19 in order to expand Danish claims to the North Atlantic. He took with him other Scots like John Broun as well as Scottish ships like The Gilbert. 12 Sometime after (1631 -33), Axel Mowatt, Andrew's son, became admiral of all the ships in the seas between Iceland and the Faeroes. 13 In autumn 1633 the younger Mowatt was moved from his northern command to act as the senior admiral in and around the river Elbe.  Forening Skrifter, no. 36 (Bergen, 1930), 95 -8. 12 Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto, 1966), I, 243;Dansk Biograisk Leksikon, (16 vols, 1979-1984  by 1638 he had become senior admiral of the entire Norwegian leet. 14 The Scottish presence at the highest operational level continued into the 1640s. In 1645, Colonel Alexander Seaton, former governor of Stralsund, served as 'Admiral for Marines' with command over a squadron of eight ships. 15 With these he prosecuted an amphibious offensive against Gothenburg, in consort with Vice-Admiral Sigvard Gabrielsen Akeleye.
One historian who discussed foreign enlistment into the Danish-Norwegian navy noted that 'only a few skilled English and Dutch oficers were hired by Christian IV, but they had little real impact on the navy as a whole'. 16 Given the numbers and status of Scots and English oficers given above and in Appendix II, this conclusion is obviously in need of revision. Between 1580 and 1678 Scotland produced at least 42 senior naval personnel for the Danish-Norwegian navy including ive admirals and a vice-admiral. It would be amazing if these men 'had little real impact', especially when the various operations they took part in appear to prove otherwise. More importantly, we should consider what this period represented in terms of Northern European power politics. If we look to when the bulk of the men enlisted, it was without doubt at a time when Denmark-Norway was the most important navy in the north. But as the seventeenth century progressed and the Copenhagen monarchy lost power and prestige, so the numbers joining her navy began to dry up correspondingly. Furthermore, Christian IV's realms were not the only Scandinavian lands hosting Scotsmen in their navy, nor did they take in the majority of Scots seeking naval service. As Denmark's star was falling, Sweden's was on the rise.

Scots in the Swedish Navy
When Gustav II Adolf restructured the navy in 1614, he retained sixteen commissioned naval captains who between them had command of a leet of forty ships. 17 As Alexia Grosjean has demonstrated, at this juncture we can be sure that 25 per cent of those captains kept on were Scots; Andrew Forrat, John (Hans) Forrat, Alexander Forrat and Richard (Jacob) Clerck. Two of these men commanded signiicant leets that year, Alexander Forrat and Richard Clerck. The latter, by now an admiral, was one of two Scots with the rank in Sweden in 1614 as William Robertson Ruthven remained in Sweden with the rank of varfsadmiral (admiral of the wharf) that year.
According to Grosjean, the high percentage of Scottish involvement continued as the regular Swedish navy established itself. Still in late 1627 and early 1628 some nine Scottish-born captains are known to have been in service at sea, or incredibly 64 per cent of the total of fourteen naval captains which Sir James Spens, the British Ambassador, noted were active in regular Swedish naval service that year. 18 The total number of active ship commanders rose to thirty captains by the end of Gustav II Adolf 's reign, bringing several more Scots into service. When the new rank of vice-admiral was formalised in 1630, two of the appointments made at this rank were Scots: Simon Stewart and John Clerck. Eventually both of these men received further promotion, Stewart to lieutenant admiral in 1644 and Clerck to holmadmiral (admiral of Stockholm royal shipyard) in 1631. 19 A concentration on the oficers of only the rank of captain and above would ignore the contribution of the many other Scots who commanded Swedish ships at lesser rank. The data analysed by Grosjean indicates that these Scots served in a navy dominated by fellow Scots in terms of a total British involvement. The Scottish admirals commanded many of their countrymen in the lower ranks, including some particularly effective lieutenants and captains. During the Swedish-Danish Torstensson War (1643 -5), one Scottish lieutenant admiral, one major, three other captains and four lieutenants participated in the conlict at sea for the Swedes, while Holmadmiral John 'Hans' Clerck remained in command of shore facilities in Sweden. 20  Three particular Scottish families had substantial inluence at oficer level in the seventeenth century Swedish navy: the Stewarts, the Forrats, and the Clercks. Of the Stewarts, Simon -as already discussed -rose to the rank of admiral, while his son Richard also joined the leet as an oficer. Their countryman, Andrew Stuart 'den äldre' (the elder), also earned the rank of vice-admiral and served between 1621 -41. 22 The Forrats similarly did well for themselves, though for more unusual reasons than the Stewarts. Andrew, John (Hans) and Alexander all served between 1597 and 1660. Alexander, in his capacity as vice-admiral, received a degree of fame after choosing to blow up himself and his ship, Solen, rather than let it be captured by a squadron of Polish ships off the coast of Danzig during the battle of Oliva in 1627. 23 Sir James Spens, a Scotsman working as the Stuart ambassador to Sweden and Swedish resident in London, recorded the incident: The King had left in the Danzig roads only ive of his smallest and worst ships to prevent Danzig vessels coming out this year, for winter storms of frost and snow often lead to loss of ships in the narrow rocky waters; whereupon the Danzigers prepared ten ships which on a night of full moon sailed out, with the subsequent ight lasting two days; during the second day the admiral's vessel was captured, whereupon his captain, a Scotsman called Forath, decided to blow it up and die courageously rather than fall into the enemy's hands; the other four, unable to endure, sailed for home. 24 Ironically a Scottish vice-admiral was killed in the operation against a leet of ships built by a Scottish shipbuilder for the Poles, Colonel James Murray. The Forrats and Stewarts were, however, not the most impressive examples of the rise and integration of seafaring Scots in Sweden. That distinction fell to the Clercks (Klerks), many of whom became holmadmirals of the leet. Richard held this title from 1619 to 1625, his brother Johan held it from 1631 -44, their nephew Richard the younger held it from 1655 to 1668, His brother Hans Williamson Clerck, became holmadmiral from 1668 to 74. Hans Richard Clerck received the appointment on 31 January 1677 while Hans Hanson Clerck became a full admiral the same year. 25 Numerous others in the family, served as ship's captains in the Swedish navy at the same time.
Sweden's naval strength was a prerequisite for her successful military and trade relations during the seventeenth century and Scotsmen were vital to the process of expansion. Once Scotland had become occupied by the English (1651 -60) and after that country secured an alliance with Sweden (1654), the intake and importance of Scots to the Swedish state declined. Although there were individual Scots who did make it to Swedish naval service thereafter, the 'waves' of recruitment had run their course. Equally importantly, there were new destinations which absorbed Scotland's naval elite, particularly as the House of Stuart went to war against the Dutch Republic in the 1660 and 1670s. As Andrew Little has admirably demonstrated, even outwith the Baltic arena, there were impressive waves of Scottish maritime recruitment into both the Stuart Royal Navy and the Dutch leets against whom they fought. 26 Noticeably though, Scots did not rise to the same rank in Dutch service as they did in the north. Perhaps this tells us something about the opportunities available to experienced foreigners in 'young' navies. Certainly this was the case in Russia, where the Scots again did well in terms of the rank and status they achieved there.

The Scottish Admirals in Russia
If we break the service of the Scottish admirals in Russia down into speciic periods then we see two main 'waves' of naval migration into Russia. We can loosely term these the Jacobite period (1694 -1750) and the Era of Catherine (1762 -96). 27 Even within these dates we can subdivide again, pointing to a irst inlux of oficers after 1698 and a second after the failure of the 1715 uprising in the Jacobite period. Similarly we can demarcate two sub-groups within the era of Catherine the Great.
We must be careful here not to ascribe 'Jacobite' credentials too quickly to all those taken into Russian service in the early period of the Romanov navy. Among the irst group of Scots enlisted were a group of ten hired in Amsterdam in 1698 by Peter the Great, of which Commodore George Walker was the highest in rank. 28 Given they were recruited after the conclusion of the Nine Years' War (1688 -97) it is just as likely that many of these men were simply redundant British oficers as Jacobite exiles. Importantly, they also joined numerous English and Dutch oficers, few of whom were likely to be sympathisers of the exiled James VII & II and his heirs -it was for their skills as seamen that they were recruited, not for their politics. Nonetheless, the men of the Jacobite period can demonstrably be shown to have participated in a number of naval campaigns and largely did good work for the Russian navy, even if there were a couple of incidents which displeased the Tsar. Although Rebecca Wills credits all Jacobite oficers with 'disproportionate success', their reputation as superlative military commanders (army and navy) does not always stand up to scrutiny. 29 Wills is perhaps overly defensive of their errors and ignores their absolute failures. Thus, though she frequently mentions the Russian service of Admiral Thomas Gordon and the naval captains Robert Little and Adam Urquhart, the fact that they all wrecked ships through neglect is ominous by its absence from her discussion of them (Little was demoted and jailed, Urquhart was killed trying to salvage his command). 30 Furthermore, in her assessment of the Russian navy under Peter the Great, Lindsey Hughes makes no mention of any Jacobite admirals at all, not even Thomas Gordon. Rather the Norwegian, Cornelius Cruys, is held up as the most prominent naval expert (foreign or domestic), and not without good reason. That is not to say that Hughes claimed a deinitive assessment of the navy.
Wills has undoubtedly done more research on the Jacobite period in Russia than anyone else and in combination with Hughes we learn much 27 For the 'Jacobite Period' see Murdoch, 'Soldier, Sailor, Jacobite Spy', 7 -27; Wills, The Jacobites and Russia, 27 -31. For the 'Era of Catherine' see Cross, 'Scoto-Russian Contacts', 24 -46. 28 D. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection (Aberdeen, 1996), 117. 29 Wills, The Jacobites in Russia, 187; Hughes, Peter the Great, 80 -9. 30 Murdoch, 'Soldiers, Sailors, Jacobite Spy ', 9. of methods of recruitment, payment and opportunities for promotion for British and other foreign oficers in the Russian navy. 31 Russo-British diplomacy went from a position of alliance in 1716 to hostility soon after which impacted on the opportunities for Royal Naval oficers to transfer to Russian service. By 1719 plans were even set afoot to try to capture Peter the Great at sea. 32 These came to nought while Jacobites were not deterred by restrictions designed to prevent Britons from entering hostile service. This group included the hugely important English and Irish duo, Thomas Saunders and Christopher O'Brien, reminding us again that other foreign contributions to the Russian navy in the Jacobite period were as signiicant as the Scots. However, Thomas Gordon and Kenneth Sutherland, Lord Duffus both went on to have successful careers at the highest level within the Russian navy. With the end of the Great Northern War (1721), and the death of Peter the Great (1725), the highpoint of 'Jacobite' recruitment was over, even if numerous Jacobites remained in service for the next 20 years. 33 Gordon in particular was credited with numerous maritime and amphibious victories on behalf of the Russians, particularly against the Poles in 1733 -35. 34 With his death in 1741, Scottish input to the Russian navy became largely insigniicant, at least until the reign of Catherine the Great.
A.G. Cross has pointed to two sub-groups of Scottish naval oficers arriving in Russia within the reign of Catherine the Great. The period 1764 -1772 was one which saw no less than thirty British oficers enter Russian naval service (though Cross does not detail how many were Scots), while the year 1783 alone saw the arrival of another thirty-eight British oficers in a group. 35 As with the irst wave of British recruitment into Russia, the irst of Catherine's Scottish admirals arrived after a major European conlict was over -on this occasion the Seven Years' War (1756 -63). 36  then on his stature grew (not without some problems such as the Tarakanova affair), and he reached the rank of full Admiral in 1782. Apart from his strategic contribution at sea, Greig oversaw the entry into Russian service of at least another 20 British oficers whose services had become redundant in the Royal Navy after the end of the American War of Independence. He was responsible for ensuring that their proposed petition against another Scottish recruit, Admiral John Paul Jones, was not pursued with Catherine the Great and thus ensured the Russians had the service of a mariner of proven skill and courage. 38 He had, of course, served against the British on behalf of the United States Navy which made him very unpopular with his British colleagues. Like Greig's, John Paul Jones' career in Russia is a matter of record, and his successes on the Black Sea campaigns are as well known to scholars of this period of Russian history as are the allegations of rape which led to his return to Paris. 39 As with his forebears, John Paul Jones served in a multi-national Russian navy consisting of Russians, Britons, Greeks, Spaniards and Germans. He was loathed by most which helped fuel the various attempts to smear his name. Given this situation it was unlikely from the outset his service would be of any duration. With the death of Samuel Greig in 1788 and the departure of Jones thereafter, the period of Scottish Admirals in the service of the 'Northern Powers' came to an end, albeit oficers of the rank of captain and lower continued to serve for a few years thereafter.

Shipbuilding
If we want to test the wave analogy against another facet of maritime migration we could can look to ship builders and ind a near match to the waves of admirals and senior oficers who left Scotland for northern European navies. Scotland is not renowned for her naval shipbuilding, and the larger warship projects are usually attributed to French shipwrights, particularly the lagship of James IV's navy, Michael. 40 That is not to say that Scotland did not have her own shipwrights or naval potential -she most certainly did -only that these are frequently overlooked in terms of Scottish naval history. Take  example Martin Bellamy's conclusions that Balfour and Sinclair came from a country without a warship building tradition and that they represented something of an enigma. 41 However, the resources available to Scottish (and foreign) shipbuilders have received scholarly attention and thus the fact that Scotland had a more established naval shipbuilding tradition becomes easier to comprehend. 42 Having learned their trade in Scotland, many Scottish shipwrights travelled abroad for one-off commissions or to take service in the navies of the northern powers.
The Danish-Norwegian navy was inanced by the Sound Tolls enabling Christian IV to bring in shipwrights from Scotland, England and Holland with impunity 'to build for him warships of the most modern design'. 43 The Danish need coupled with the ability of the shipwrights allowed the Danish-Norwegian navy to grow considerably throughout Christian IV's reign. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, many Scottish shipwrights worked in Denmark-Norway on a private basis. Andrew Watson received permission to complete a ship he had started building in Norway in 1589. 44 The following year Archibald Douglas also received permission to build a ship of eighty lasts despite a ban on foreigners building vessels over twenty lasts in Norway. Permission in this case had been granted through the intervention of James VI directly. 45 This avenue of using royal patronage was bolstered after the royal wedding of James VI to Anna of Denmark in 1589. Anna herself gave permission to one Andrew Forrat of St Andrews (already mentioned in the Swedish navy) to build a ship in Norway while other Scottish noblemen also wanted to build two ships there. Christian IV honoured his sister's promise and Forrat was allowed to bring his ship to Scotland. 46 However, Christian's patience began to wear thin, especially when the Scots started building vessels without even seeking permission from Copenhagen. In 1599 Christian only dropped his case against two Scottish shipwrights, James and David Lenteren because, as he admitted, they had produced some clever supplications in 41  support of their activities. 47 He allowed them to complete their ship but others were not so lucky. When William Duncan, Richard Waddell and Jacob Clerck all built ships in Norway in 1605, Christian IV wanted the vessels either coniscated or bought from the Scots as cheaply as possible. 48 Apparently the Danish king delighted in the design of Scottish ships and consequently employed several Scottish shipwrights directly into his service. 49 Robert Peterson entered Danish-Norwegian service in 1596 with a commission to build four ships, and eight years later he was appointed as a 'royal' shipbuilder to Christian IV. 50 Probst,Den Danske Flådes Historie,49,62;Bellamy,'Danish Naval Administration',316. 52 Probst,Den Danske Flådes Historie,36,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]128,162. 53  he sent an Englishman, James Rubbins, whom Christian IV made Royal Shipbuilder and effectively ended the 'Scottish' period of Scottish inluence in Danish naval design. 56 Elsewhere in Scandinavia, Scottish shipbuilders had also been in demand. Grosjean's careful analysis of the 401 ships listed in Zettersten's history of the Swedish navy revealed information pertaining to twenty-two shipbuilders. Three of these came from the British Isles and all appear to be English: Robert Turner, Francis Sheldon and Thomas Day, all of whom worked in Sweden in the 1660 -80 period. 57 However, it is clear that Zettersten's work was far from complete. Another of the key sources for information is C. O. Cederlund's article on Dutch shipbuilders and their contribution in Sweden in the early seventeenth century. Cederlund speciically discussed two Dutch master shipwrights but also mentioned the presence of one Scot and one German employed in the same industry. 58 Grosjean argues that both these works signiicantly underestimate the impact of Scottish shipbuilders between the mid 1500s and the irst quarter of the seventeenth century. 59 From Gustav Vasa's reign onwards, Scottish naval design had been coveted in Sweden. In 1544 Gustav requested a Scottish built ship for his navy and in 1550 he ordered his shipbuilders to study a Scottish ship he had seen in one of his harbours so that they could copy it. 60 Thereafter, Scottish shipwrights were encouraged to enter Swedish service directly. Andrew Forrat arrived in Sweden in 1597 soon after completing his ships in Norway. In 1608 William Williamson undertook shipbuilding in the Stockholm shipyard though information on his remains scant. 61 Much more is known William Robertson Ruthven, a man who would later hold the rank of admiral, who appeared as another master shipbuilder at 56 Rubbins produced at least three warships for the Danish navy. Nyköping and Ulvesund's shipyards between 1609 -13. 62 Another, unnamed, Scottish master shipbuilder also arrived carrying accreditation from the British ambassador, Sir James Spens in 1624. 63 More important than any of these men was Jacob Richard Clerck. He had entered the navy as a shipbuilder in 1606 and was probably the same Jacob Clerck mentioned in Norway the previous year. On entering service, he built the ship Mars which was completed by 1608. Between 1615 to 1625, and in addition to any shipbuilding duties, he held the monopoly over all rigging, tackles, and material supplies for the navy on contract from the Swedish Crown. The monopoly was passed onto Hans Clerck after Jacob Richard's death. 64 The contribution of the Scottish shipbuilders in Sweden is hard to gauge, but in Grosjean's analysis may have exceeded the contribution of other nations, particularly the two Dutchmen mentioned by Cederlund. 65 After the loss of Vasa in 1628, the Swedish government stepped back from a large scale building project. Interim solutions were offered by the Swedish state council (Riksråd) who believed that ships might be bought inexpensively elsewhere. One Swedish merchant was ordered to obtain a replacement for a ship he had lost for the price of 1,000 riksdaler or less from Scotland in 1629 suggesting a continued recognition of Scottish naval design. But buying abroad was never as viable as building at home. 66 By 1636 the only Scottish shipbuilder still employed directly by the Swedish Crown was William Ruthven although that did not mean an end to warships being built by Scots in Sweden. In 1644 a pearl-isherman by the name of Robert Buchan de Portlethen privately built a warship in Gothenburg which he hoped to sell onto the Swedish Crown for a proit, with help from the Scottish admiral, Simon Stewart. In a letter to the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierrna, he recorded: I have here a ship made for military service and now nearly inished. If it please the most illustrious lords of the Crown, I would sell it. Let the price be however much respectable men think it is worth. Everything is at hand to inish it. But since the workmen have been conscripted to work for the Crown, I have no one here who can inish it. So far I have sent Admiral Simon Stewart 67 its size and length. 68 Buchan's warship was the last of the Scottish, or even British built warships in Sweden until the arrival of the three Englishmen noticed above, so it appears that the inlux of Scots in this maritime capacity was slightly shorter lived than that of senior oficers.
Across the Baltic in Poland-Lithuania, a Scot once more proved to be important to the development of the national navy. As early as 1601, James Murray had been appointed as a courtier to Sigismund III. In 1620 Sigismund appointed Murray as his senior naval architect. His irst ship was a 14 gun, two-masted pink launched in 1622. The following year, Murray received instructions to build another 10 ships of up to 400 tons. Murray's ships were successfully employed in the naval battle against the Swedes at Oliva in 1627, although Murray himself refused to take part in the naval campaign as he had been passed over for the position of admiral. 69 Nonetheless, in Denmark-Norway, Sweden and Poland-Lithuania Scottish shipbuilders had, at various times, proven to be the most numerous of the foreign shipbuilders and perhaps the most important too.
It is clear from this survey that many Scots were building ships in Norway at the end of the sixteenth century, and across the Baltic throughout the seventeenth (Appendix V). This should not surprise us, as the advantages of doing so are obvious. Much of the timber trade was devoted to gaining wood for shipbuilding, so it would have made great economic sense to build the ship in Norway and sail it home rather than transport all the bits to Scotland. 67  Moreover, when a ship was brought home, it could also be laden with a cargo, increasing the beneit by not having to pay the costs of an outward journey. Gustav Vasa's admiration for Scottish ships in the 1540s and 50s suggests that Scottish naval architects had already achieved worthy designs by mid-sixteenth century. Andrew Forrat, James Clerck and Daniel Sinclair working in Norway, probably represent a continuation of this Scottish tradition. However, the likes of William Ruthven (a cavalry captain), James Murray (a courtier and diplomat) or Robert Buchan (a pearl-isher) seem to have been self-taught or more likely, bought in expertise to assist their building projects. Certainly in 1645 a military oficer, Captain George Scott, built a ship for Venetian service in Inverness but brought the carpenters from south -though whether it was the south of Scotland or abroad is not stated. Nonetheless, the ship he built served the Venetians well and led to the promotion of his brother William Scott to the position of vice-admiral in the service of Venice after he put the vessel to good use against the Turks. 70 More importantly Scott, Ruthven and Murray remind us that instead of only looking to Scotland for the source of the skilled workforce, we should also consider the adaptability with which many Scots appear to have acquired new skills, brought in artisans where they lacked skills and spotted opportunities for themselves at home and abroad.

Conclusion
In this brief survey it has been possible to contextualise the presence of Scottish admirals in Russian service by comparing and contrasting their 70 From one source we learn that 'Captain George Scott came to Inverness and there built a ship of a prodigious bigness, for bulk and burden, none such ever seen in our north seas. There is an unmistakable correlation with the development or regularisation of a navy in the early modern period and the inlux of suitably experienced foreigners to it. The opportunities available to skilled oficers or shipwrights can certainly be traced in the case-studies noted above, albeit further research will be required to see how many Scottish shipwrights ever made it into Russia. However one need only look to the importance of Thomas Blake Glover and the Aberdonian shipwrights of the nineteenth century in Japan to see the correlation between a ledgling navy, inancial opportunities and an entrepreneurial Scot to see the waves continued beyond the geographical area or speciic time period discussed here. 71 In the early modern period there was an unmistakable similarity in the recruitment in Scandinavia of shipwrights and admirals. In the Danish-Norwegian, Swedish and Russian cases for the admirals and senior oficers, the presence of Scots usually reached its epoch as the transition to regular navy was still in progress. Once the navy was fully established and trained indigenous personnel became available, the requirement for foreign experts diminished.
A second noticeable factor in recruitment occured at those times when circumstances came together allowing for the departure of an individual from their homeland at that same time of need in a particular country in search of a speciically skilled migrant. In the case of Denmark-Norway, their ongoing hostility with Sweden coupled with their alliance with the House of Stuart led redundant Scottish mariners to seek promotion through royal patronage in an allied country, and with a great deal of success, particularly in the reign of James VI. That said, dynastic alliances were only one factor that could encourage the migration of skilled mariners. Others without opportunity at home could be attracted into foreign service through forced exile, inancial incentive or a combination of both. Thus the Scottish renegade Simon Stewart could join the regular Swedish navy and become an admiral alongside compatriots who were not in exile, but simply reaped the rewards of the 71 A. Mackay, Scottish Samurai: Thomas Blake Glover, 1838-1911(Edinburgh, 1993, 75, 87 and passim. Swedish treasury (and in the process contributed greatly to that 'Unoficial Alliance'). Political exiles also formed a signiicant proportion of those senior admirals who joined Russian service (particularly Jacobites, besides others like John Paul Jones), but as discussed above, they could only ind service there at a time when the Russian navy was still in its infancy or desperate due to ongoing wars. By the end of the eighteenth century the Russians were more than capable of commanding their own leets and had by then an established pedigree of indigenous commanders. As noted in the introduction, we could have substituted several other nautical capacities to test the wave theory, albeit that shipbuilding suficed in this case. Indeed there the analogy could have been extended beyond the conines of the maritime world. There is no doubt that the waves at sea were replicated in other capacities on land. The maritime migration closely followed the military migrations in Denmark-Norway, Sweden and Russia. For sure there was not a time between the late sixteenth and later eighteenth centuries when there were no Scots simultaneously serving in each country. But in terms of weight of numbers we can undoubtedly look to a Danish period that reached its height in the 1620s (13,500 soldiers between 1626 and1629), 72 or a Swedish phase that was over by the 1650s (30,000 between 1628 and 1648). 73 Russia never attracted the same number of soldiers but in terms of importance there were numerous commanders of note including Patrick Gordon and James Keith in addition to the admirals noted above. Even beyond the maritime and martial we could also look to comparative waves of engineers, doctors and artisans to ind similar results in the waves of migration. 74 In the Russian case (with the exception of Patrick Gordon) the most noteworthy Scots arrived just as Sweden's 'Age of Greatness' came to an end and Russia became the new power in the north. And for those Scots who wished to exploit the opportunities of another great power and shores elsewhere, there were always opportunities in the Royal Navy and the British Empire.