The Poles managed to build a small modern and efficient naval force, with valuable units. This was even more true in 1936, with the advent of Hitler and the Third Reich, and on the other side an increasingly threatening Soviet state. The Polish fleet was to be adapted to its lesser needs, the land borders representing a danger much more present than the safeguarding and the surveillance of a mere 90 miles of coastal front. Added to this was a division of territory with an enclavement of a region of East Prussia, the famous “Dantzig Corridor” the source of later discontent between neighbours. In 1920, independent again with a newly liberated territory, Poland quicky constituted a modest fleet composed of heterogeneous ships of the German fleet ceded by the allies and captured Russian ships. The know-how of the Polish shipyards is still recognized today in the world, and their remaining geopolitical importance can be also measured by their political weight and their contribution to the emancipation of the Soviet sphere in the 90s.
While it is well known that the Venetians have been great maritime navigators since the end of antiquity, it is lesser known that the Eastern Scandinavian sailors and traders have much to do with the techniques developed by these navigators.Ī commercial powerhouse of the Baltic, Poland once had a fleet of impressive trade carracks in the XV-XVI centuries, including the huge “Peter of Gdansk”. Poland has experienced many territorial vicissitudes in its history, wedged between its bulky Germanic neighbors and the Russian Empire, and threatened in the south by the Turkish advance, it has developed a rich and ancient maritime culture.
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