Swedish Allotment System - Navy System

Navy System

The Swedish Navy recruited their seamen using the same system as the army, but from coastal provinces and towns (including non-coastal towns). As with the infantry, the farms in coastal areas were organized into rotar, which would each provide a croft (båtmanstorp) for a navy volunteer. Recruits only had duties on board the ships, for example as artillerymen or sailors, and were not used for other combat duties, such as boardings and landings, which were executed by army units transported on the ships. The seamen often served in the navy six months over the summer of every third year. Later, from the middle of the 18th century, some of the rotar in the cities would pay a fee equal to the approximate cost of providing a boatsman, instead of providing one from among themselves.

There were several problems with this system, relating to the fact that a large proportion of the seamen did not live anywhere near the largest naval ports of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Karlskrona. Many seamen had their crofts along the coast of Norrland and Finland, and thus had several hundred kilometres to travel when called into service. Originally, the seamen had to walk the long way to the nearest port; later, they were transported by horse and carriage. Even the latter method of transport, however, took a long time, and soon the state began to provide tools and materials, excepting the actual timber, to the rote so that the farmers could build a large rowing/sailing boat called a lodja. These boats could transport up to 25 men, and could ease the transport to the naval ports.