Kronan (ship) - Crew

Crew

Being one of the largest ships of its time, Kronan had a large crew. When she sank there were 850 people on board, 500 sailors and 350 soldiers. Historians working with the excavation of the wrecksite have compared the ship with a middle-sized Swedish town of the late 17th century, describing it as a "miniature society". There were representatives of both the lower and upper classes on board, though only male. Women were allowed on navy vessels, but only within the limits of Stockholm archipelago; before reaching open water they had to disembark. As a community afloat Kronan mirrored the contemporary social standards of military and civilian life, two spheres that were not strictly separated in the 17th century. The entire crew dressed in civilian clothing and there were no common navy uniforms. Clothing was differentiated according to social standing, with officers from the nobility dressed in elegant and expensive clothing while the crew dressed in clothing of ordinary common laborers. The only exceptions were the soldiers of the Västerbotten infantry regiment. By the 1670s it is believed that they had been equipped with the first "Carolingian" uniforms in blue and white. The crew was sometimes assigned clothing or cloth with which to prepare a "sailor garb" (båtmansklädning) which set them apart from the usual dress of the general populace. Officers maintained a large collection of fine clothing for use on board, but its is not known if they were actually used during everyday work. Quite likely they owned a set of clothes made from simpler, more durable and more comfortable fabrics which were more practical at sea.

Recruitment was done by forced musters as a part of the earlier form of the so-called allotment system. Sailors and gunners were supplied by a båtsmanshåll (literally "sailor household"), small administrative units along the coast that were assigned the task of supplying the fleet with one adult male for armed service. The soldiers on board came from the army equivalent, knekthåll or rotehåll, ("soldier -" or "ward household") from inland areas. Officers were for the most part from the nobility or from the upper middle class, paid through the allotment system or the income from estates designated for the purpose. Higher-ranking officers also most likely brought their personal servants on board. A valuable red jacket in bright red cloth that was worn by one of those who drowned on the ship could have belonged to one of these retinues.