Today I decided to add a little to the theme of the unprecedented victory in the first naval battle of the Russian fleet, which is called the "Battle on the Neva".
According to historians, this event happened on May 18 (6th in the old style), 1703.
I recently wrote an article on this subject and there I expressed several doubts about the veracity of this story.
But I want to say that I did not write everything there.
Peter's recklessness and a little about the essence of boarding
So. Let me briefly recall the story. On this day, having taken out about 30 boats, Peter the Great and Menshikov put the soldiers and officers of the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments there (Peter simply did not see others at that time) and attacked two Swedish warships and captured them in a boarding battle. Moreover, Peter himself allegedly climbed onto the enemy's ship among the first.
Let's start with the feat of the king.
Promotional video:
The fact that he was allegedly in the forefront of boarding looks completely absurd. Often, the first rows are killed first (sorry for the tautology). That is, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the state crawls under the bullets in a fairly insignificant battle?
It sounds about the same as, for example: "Putin was one of the first to burst into a village occupied by militants, holding a grenade in one hand and a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the other." Is it funny?
And historians are not funny. Well, did he do carpentry in Holland? Why not be a soldier too.
But even if we accept the version that he really famously climbed onto the deck, the question arises: where did he learn from? Boarding combat is a very difficult tactical action often used by pirates. Did Peter the Great visit the pirates?
Well the king. He climbed there, somewhere in Europe for two years, and he learned something. What about the soldiers? After all, it is clearly said that they were at sea for almost the first time. How did they get on the enemy ship? And most importantly, with the help of what?
To capture a ship by boarding, you need special devices. Basically, this is either a bridge of about ten meters, or some kind of arrow with a heavy load at the end. The bridge was thrown on board the ship and fixed there.
On this bridge the soldiers tried to run onto the deck. But they still had to hook their ship to the enemy ship using hooks. How did these fittings fit on the boat? No way. This is simply not possible.
The question arises: how did the soldiers with Peter at their head end up on board the warship? By air?
And do not forget that, in general, the boat and the ship are mercilessly rocking on the waves. Without certain skills, not only will you not get on the ship, you will not even walk the boat.
It turns out that a group of LAND infantry, having no equipment, climbs onto the ship, possibly along ropes. And the crew of a warship with trained sailors stands and wonders whether they will take it or not? Maybe he even makes bets.
Probably this is not so, because as a result, almost all of them were killed there.
If you have a deadly situation, will you stand and watch? I think no. You can cut the ropes. You can shoot back. You can finally raise the sails and go to your own.
But this was not done. Just like in American cinema, when one Rimbaud crushes enemies with whole companies.
And this story really resembles a Hollywood movie.
Therefore, I am sure that this battle is complete fiction. For what do you say? There may be several answers, but more on that another time.