Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

James Murray () was a

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy was the navy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and existed from 1627 to 1643. History The Commonwealth Navy was small and played a relatively minor role in the history of the Commonwealth. Juliusz Ba ...

officer. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

and worked as a shipbuilder and naval officer during the reign of

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa (, ; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Re ...

. He designed the galleon ''

Król Dawid ''Król Dawid'' ( English: "King David") was a 31-gun galleon of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy that fought in the Battle of Oliwa. She was launched as ''König David'' at Gdańsk in 1623 as a merchant ship. During the Polish-Lithuania ...

'' and in 1627 commanded it at the

Battle of Oliwa The Battle of Oliwa, also known as the Battle of Oliva or the Battle of Gdańsk Roadstead, was a naval battle that took place on 28 November, 1627, slightly north of the port of Gdańsk off of the coast of the village of Oliva during the Polish ...

during the

Polish–Swedish War This is a List of wars between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden. Broadly construed, the term refers to a series of wars between 1562 and 1814. More narrowly, it refers to particular wars between 1600 and 1629. These are the wars ...

References

* Anna Biegańska, "James Murray: A Scot in the Making of the Polish Navy," '' Scottish Slavonic Review'' 3 (1984): 1-9 * Polish Navy admirals Scottish admirals Scottish shipbuilders Scottish mercenaries Year of birth missing Year of death missing Scottish expatriates in Poland 16th-century Scottish people {{Poland-mil-bio-stub