A Polish Slave's Escape from an Ottoman Galley

Michael Polczynski, Georgetown University

During the early modern period the conjoined polities of Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire shared a frontier that stretched over 1,000 kilometers through the Pontic Steppe and into the Carpathian Mountains, encompassing territories in modern Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and Slovakia. Within this deep and expansive frontier zone, the Crimean Khanate, vassals of the Ottoman Sultan, engaged in the Black Sea slave trade, which resulted in the disappearance of some 2,000,000 individuals between 1500-1700 from the north Caucasus, Muscovy, and Poland-Lithuania (Kołodzejczyk, 2006). When they were not ransomed by family members, the Church, or the state, prisoners of war often supplemented this trade, which funneled human chattel south to work on farms, in manufacturing, as house slaves, or as galley slaves. The fates of these individuals are all but unknown.

Yet one of the exceptions to this absence is a swashbuckling tale of enslavement and escape accredited to a Polish nobleman named Marek Jakimowski that was published in multiple European languages in the early 17th century. Although the events contained within the account have yet to be confirmed in Ottoman sources, it serves as a quintessential example of the anti-Ottoman literature that circulated throughout Christendom during periods of conflict with the Padishah. In Poland-Lithuania, the continued popularity of the harrowing tale of nobleman-cum-galley slave Marek Jakimowski for several centuries was emblematic of a society whose identity as the antemurale christianitatis (bulwark of Christendom) was tied closely to its shared frontier with the Ottoman Empire. However it seems the ethnic makeup of the mutineers stretched far beyond Poland-Lithuania, with the galley slaves including “[three Poles], three Greeks, two Englishmen, an Italian" while "the rest were either Ruthenian or Muscovites.”

Battle of Cecora 1620 by Witold Piwnicki, 1878

The hero of this tale, Marek Jakimowski, was a szlachcic (nobleman/citizen) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, born near the town of Bar in the province of Podolia, in present-day Ukraine. A participant in the 1620 battle of Cecora (above) on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was taken prisoner by Ottoman forces, and sold into slavery. His account explains that he was purchased by “Kassem Beg”, the Ottoman governor of Damietta and Rosetta in Egypt, and admiral of a fleet of galleys. Marek Jakimowski was assigned to Kassem Beg’s lead kadırğa (galley), where he was given a position that allowed him freedom of motion on board the craft.

While anchored off the shore of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, Jakimowski purportedly led a successful mutiny on his ship. At an opportune moment when the bulk of the ship’s soldiers as well as its commander were on land, Jakimowski freed his fellow galley slaves with the help of two other Polish prisoners, Stefan Satanowski and Jan of Tulczyn. The freed slaves then killed or expelled the remaining Ottoman soldiers and commandeered the ship. Several accompanying Ottoman galleys from the same fleet gave chase, but the fugitives managed to lose them in a storm and sail successfully to Messina on the island of Sicily. From there they went to Palermo, where they left the captured galley in the possession of the Viceroy of Naples in exchange for two smaller vessels, which they took to Naples and on to Rome, where they arrived on February, 16th, 1621. Once there, Jakimowski and his companions left the Ottoman banners taken during their mutiny as votive offerings in several churches.

As the leader of the mutiny, Marek Jakimowski was given a special audience by the new Pope, Gregory XV, during which he made a personal gift of a banner he had taken, in return for which he was decorated with high honors. The former slaves were also received in Rome by Cardinals Cosima de Torresa and Francesco Barberini. While in Rome, Jakimowski married a certain Polish woman named Katarzyna, whom he had allegedly freed from slavery, possibly on the galley itself, and returned to Poland. Jakimowski and his wife made it successfully to Kraków on the 8th of May, 1628.

There is some debate as to when these events actually occurred; an account of Jakimowski’s adventure was printed in Rome, perhaps as early as 1623, under the title “La conquista della galera di Alessandria nel porto di Metelline, coll’oepra e gran coraggio del Capitano Marco Jakimowski Polacco”. Five years later, the tale was reprinted in Rome, Florence, and Kraków in Italian, German, and Polish. As no original copy of the 1623 publication has survived, it remains unclear whether the mutiny occurred in the year 1621, 1622, or 1627.

The popularity of the tale of Marek Jakimowski is evidenced by its publication in Italian, German, and Polish- three of the major languages of the Ottoman/European frontier. The event was commemorated by the Venetian painter Tommaso Dolabella, active in the court of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) and his son, King Władysław IV Vasa (1595-1648), whose work depicted the marriage of Marek and Katarzyna.  During the 19th century, following the partitioning of Poland-Lithuania by its neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, Jakimowski appeared in nationalist literature, though, in a potent reminder of the malleability of history in support of nationalist projects, Jakimowski's struggle against his Ottoman captors was employed not to symbolize the struggles of Poles against the Sultan, but rather their struggles against the Sultan's mortal enemy: the Tzar of Russia.

The Account of Marek Jakimowski:

The might of the Turkish state, as well as that of all of its members (clients) began once again to fall upon pious peoples and Christian life through the law of the Council of Trent, bringing in particular much suffering, and weakening the soldier of the sea, who is usually the foremost defense of every province. Through this, much succor was imparted to the heathen, who, in the past, ordinarily would have always taken into slavery young captured Christians.  Their galleys, which in the past were a terror and were full of Christian prisoners of every nation and ruled the entire sea, in these days are so weakened that, if not for the Tatars alone constantly invading the countrys of Ruthenia and Muscovy, filling the Turkish armada with people, it is certain that the Turkish Monarchy, though it is so strong, would be without its arms upon the sea; Already [at present] on their galleys, prisoners are not commonly seen aside from the above mentioned nations, who [the Turks] purchase for money, rule over, beat and lacerate [at will] as their personal slaves.

In recent times, Kassymbek, a Turk from Alexandria, governor of Damiata and Rosseto, [who was] very wealthy in his properties, which are large in Egypt, and through various trade, which he undertook constantly in those countries with his brother Mehmed, having become for a period of four years the captain of four galleys, which guarded the port and navigation of Alexandria, filled his own foremost two-masted galley with two hundred Christian prisoners; among them were three Greeks, two Englishmen, an Italian and the rest were from either Ruthenian or Muscovites.

It came to be that the Lord God gave the [favorable] weather and occasion to a Christian to bring low that monstrous pagan, who everyone feared a great deal. This Kassymbek, remained for a while before [friendly] Turkish guns upon the [Black Sea] where the Dniester flows in for the building of a fortress at the orders of the [Turkish] Emperor  [to guard] against the invasion of Cossacks, a people who all Turks greatly fear. After the onset of winter, while returning home, [Kassymbek] took upon his galley in Constantinople Isuph Kadego with his wife and servants, who was a well-known judge from the Porte to Aleksandria. Traveling, then, along that route, they put in at the city of Metellino, which is located on the Aegean Sea; there they were provisioned with necessities at the beginning of the month of November. They put to sea many times, but they always had to return due to great storms and high seas. Aside from this galley there were three other galleys, which, on the last return [to port], remained apart from the lead galley; not far, about a third of a mile. At that point three galleys remained in the port known as Szeroki and in the port of Caramusciali; captain Kassymbek alone remained in the port called Stretto or Scisly. On the 12th of November he put to shore to refresh himself, having with him around seventy Turks, there being altogether one hundred and fifty soldiers, as well as officials, who he took with him, so that no more than eighty [Turkish soldiers] were left aboard.

Among the Christian prisoners on that galley was Marek Jakimowski of a family from Bar in the region of Podolia. Having trained since youth in the knightly arts, he was at the battle of Cecora, and having been captured there he fell into the hands of the enemy. Seeing at that time that the captain of the galley [had] put ashore with no small portion of the Turks, he placed himself in the care of the Lord and began to think of how he and the crew might free themselves. He therefore entrusted his plan to two others; Stefan Szatanowski and Jan Stolczyn both of whom, along with [Jakimowski], were prisoners, [but] were not fettered, and walked freely about the galley during the daytime in order to [perform] a variety of duties. These two, not trusting that they would be able to escape, doubted him greatly. He said, in brief, that in such brave counsel one must have more faith in God and in the strength of [ones] mighty hand for the protection of ones own health and honor, than in the use of reason and common ability.

Having declared that he [was] absolutely prepared and resolved to do what he could, and having neither arms nor armor, he took three rods from those which the cook used in the fire; and when the cook defended himself, Jakimowski hit him in the head so well that he immediately fell dead. And having given the other two [mutineers] rods, he leapt to the stern, where Turks normally keep numerous cannons; but a soldier, a Turkified Greek, barred his way with a raised saber. Marek, taking the rod from the fire began to struggle with him and, though he was already wounded on the left side of his head and shoulder, [Jakimowski] overcame the soldier and killed him. Entering then the stern of the galley he got weapons, of which there were many, and with great speed distributed them amongst the prisoners, his comrades, who already defended themselves and beat the enemy with whatever they could reach; rods, paddles, barrels, and cooking implements. Captain Marek made his way to the aft of the galley where [there was a certain] Mustafa, [a man] of Naples, who did not know what was happening, because the galley was covered. He only knew that there was some kind of activity amongst the prisoners, which was nothing new.

Seeing, however, that Marek was hurrying towards him with his comrade, he seized two sabers, wanting to defend himself; but the manly Marek, [already] bloody and wounded, struck Mustafa between the ribs, killed him, and dumped him into the sea. At that point the Turks gathered the ropes of the cover [stretching over the length of the vessel] in order to enshroud and entrap the prisoners; at Marek’s order, [the prisoners] rolled up the canvas covering, and already having weapons, fought gallantly with the Turks, killed one and cast the other into the sea. Next they severed the lines and anchors that held the galley near the shore and beat out to sea from the port, at which point thick gunfire erupted behind them from the defensive works of the city and from the port’s fortress, although without [incurring] any damage.

Captain Kassymbek ran to the shore and waded out up to his belt in the sea crying out and cursing, tearing as his beard until he calmed down and returned. But the victorious Christians beat out to the deep sea where they were chased by three other galleys. Beginning at eight o’clock in the evening that day up until the morning of the second day and a few hours after daylight, at which time there came, probably through the will of God, a great and awful storm with winds, rain and thunder until those [pursuing] galleys had to return to Metellina, failing to give [further] chase to the galley commandeered by the Christians.

Source: Marnavizio, 1628. Opisanie krótkie zdobycia galery przednieyszey Alexandryiskiey w porcie u Metelliny za sprawą dzielną y odwagą wielką kapitana Marka Jakymowskiego który był więźniem na teyże galerze z oswobodzeniem 220 więźniem chrześcian. Kraków.

Poles

Boats