Polbryt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polbryt

logo
legal form Corporation
founding December 21, 1928
resolution 1950
Reason for dissolution Nationalization and amalgamation with other shipping companies to form the Polskie Line Oceaniczne
Seat Gdynia , Poland
management Julian Rummel (1928–1930)
Branch shipping

The Polbryt ( Polsko-Brytyjskie Towarzystwo Okrętowe SA or Polish-British Ship Society ( Polbrit )) was a Polish - British shipping company based in Gdynia , which was founded in 1928 as an emigration line and existed until 1950.

history

Foundation and development phase (1928–1931)

Julian Rummel around 1924

On the initiative of Julian Rummel (1878–1954), the Polish Ministry of Commerce founded the shipping company on December 21, 1928 as a joint venture between the state-owned Polish shipping company Żegluga Polska and the British shipping company Ellerman's Wilson Line . The main task of the shipping company was a regular shuttle service from Gdynia and Danzig to Hull and London . There the passengers boarded the emigrant ships of the major shipping companies such as the Cunard or White Star that brought them to the United States.

The Polish side held 75 percent of the share capital and the British side 25 percent of the company. The UK share declined over the following years. The company was provided with 13.5 million zlotys by the two parent companies, at the same time the new shipping company bought four ships as original equipment from Ellerman's Wilson Line , for which they paid 12.6 million zloty (290,000 pounds). The four ships Rewa , Łódź , Warszawa and Premjer were combined cargo and passenger ships that could accommodate up to 12 passengers in their own cabins and, depending on the ship, 200 to 450 additional passengers in shared accommodation with the lowest standards and those already from Ellerman's Wilson Line had been used for this task. In addition to the emigrants, the ships also transported smaller quantities of agricultural export products to Great Britain, in particular meat and butter, in cold stores.

The Łódź around 1930

The ships operated the Gdynia / Danzig and Hull connection weekly, the Gdynia / Danzig and London connection every two weeks. This made Polbryt the first Polish liner shipping company, as Żegluga Polska only operated tramp shipping at that time . In the first year they transported around 11,500 emigrants to Great Britain, transported 36,197 tons from Gdynia and Danzig to English ports and 10,949 tons back; in the first three years over 56,000 passengers were carried.

Crisis and realignment (1931–1939)

When the United States as a result of the global economic crisis their entry requirements more stringent in 1931, which lacked Polbryt the emigrants as passengers. Since the ships were not designed for more demanding passengers, it was difficult to keep operations profitable. At the same time, in 1930 the Polish government founded the Gdynia-Ameryka Line Żeglugowe, a shipping company that initially made direct connections between Gdynia and New York and Halifax in the United States possible, thus also targeting Polbryt passengers.

The Warsaw before 1935

The shipping company succeeded in realigning its operations by purchasing two pure cargo ships, the Lublin and the sister ship Lwow , in 1931 and using them on the existing line between Gdynia and Hull. The load on this connection was so high that the shipping company commissioned the new Lech building and began using it on the route to London from 1934. Up until the beginning of the Second World War , agricultural export goods in particular were transported. In return, the shipping company put its emigration ships out of service and tried to sell them: The Rewa was only launched in 1933, then scrapped a year later. The shipping company sold the Łódź to the Polish Navy in 1932, the Premjer was also first launched and sold to Italy in 1935. The Warszawa was chartered out for one year in 1934 , but then remained in service with the shipping company and was used on a newly established third line from spring 1935: The Warszawa carried emigrants on the new connection to Le Havre , while freight traffic played one role on this route subordinate role.

The Lublin between 1932 and 1939

The last ship put into service before the war was the Lida , a new build from 1938. The bulk carrier was designed primarily for the transport of wood, but also carried grain and scrap in the tramp shipping. The income from the freight business was so good that in 1939 Polbryt again ordered a combined passenger and cargo ship from a Dutch shipyard, which was to be named Warszawa II , but which was no longer delivered due to the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Second World War (1939–1945)

The port of Gdynia before 1938

At the beginning of the Second World War, the Polbryt fleet consisted of the ships Warszawa , Lublin , Lwow , Lech and Lida . All five ships spent the war years on the side of the Allies , two of them were sunk. Lida Poland was the last of the ships to leave on September 1st . The Warszawa initially carried refugees from the Balkans to France, served as a troop transport and was sunk off the Libyan coast on December 26, 1941, the Lublin contributed to supplying Malta , among other things , the Lwow was also in the Mediterranean and was sunk in the night 2 ./3. Sunk by the German Air Force in the port of Bari December 1943 . The Lech served in the Mediterranean, but also crossed the Atlantic and was also used in the North Sea, the Lida in turn survived an air raid on January 20, 1940 when a bomb hit the ship, but slipped overboard. Then she transported supplies in Atlantic convoys.

New beginning and dissolution (1945–1950)

With the three remaining ships Lublin , Lech and Lida , the shipping company resumed operations from Poland after the war. Lublin and Lech were mainly used on connections between Gdynia and London or Great Britain. But even after the end of the war, the shipping company was not spared ship losses. In 1948 the Lech sank on a mine in the Bay of Kiel. The ship was lifted a year later and put back into service in 1950 - shortly before the shipping company was dissolved. The Lida was given the new name Lidice in 1950 , as the previously named city of Lida was now part of the Soviet Union after Poland was shifted to the west . The only new addition after the war was the Czech , which was used on connections to South America, the Mediterranean, but also to Western Europe including Great Britain.

At the beginning of the year, the shipping company was liquidated as part of the nationalization in Poland: On January 2, 1951, it was merged with the two shipping companies Żegluga Polska and the Gdynia-Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe to form the new shipping company Polskie Linie Oceaniczne . This shipping company still exists today and sees itself as the successor to Polbryt .

Ships of the shipping company

Surname Construction year shipyard measurement period of service Notes, whereabouts
Rewa 1906 Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company , Kingston upon Hull 2376 GRT, 1465 NRT 1929-1934 1906 at Wilson Line as Kolpino feeder line for emigrants from the Baltic Sea area to Hull and London , naval transporter in World War I , from 1918 again feeder for emigrants from the Baltic Sea area, 1929 at Polbryt, laid up in 1933, broken up in 1934.
Łódź 1907 Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company , Kingston upon Hull 2450 BRT
1477 NRT 		1928-1932 Formerly British freighter Kovno from Ellerman Lines , acquired by Polbryt in 1928 and sold to the Polish Navy in 1932, scrapped in 1937.
Warszawa 1916 William Doxford & Sons , Sunderland 2487 BRT, 1534 NRT 1928-1941 Ordered in 1914 by the Danish shipping company Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab A / S , but not accepted, 1915 by Wilson Line, from 1917 operated by Emerson Wilson Line as an emigrant ship Smolensk between Danzig and Great Britain, 1928 at Polbryt, from 1934 in charter cruises in the Baltic Sea , from 1935 on passenger line to France, during World War II transports for allies , sunk in the Mediterranean by U 559 on December 26, 1941 .
Premjer 1922 Ramage & Ferguson , Leith 3540 BRT, 2171 NRT 1928-1935 1922 for Emerson Wilson Line between London and the Mediterranean, 1928 to Polbryt, launched in 1934, sold to Italy in 1935, there as Adua for Fleet Riunite Florio - Compagnia Italiana Transatlantica, used for military transports to Abyssinia, 1937 to Lloyd Triestino, April 2, 1941 sunk in Massaua itself.
Lublin 1932 Helsingør Skibsværft , Helsingør 1409 GRT, 686 NRT 1932-1950 1932–1939 as a general cargo ship between Gdynia and Hull, during the war allied replenishment transports a. a. to Malta, 1951 to Polish Ocean Lines, 1960 out of service as a depot ship, broken up in 1980.
Lwow 1932 Helsingør Skibsværft , Helsingør 1409 GRT, 687 NRT 1932-1943 1932–1939 as a general cargo ship between Gdynia and Hull, allied supplies during the war, in the night of 2/3. Sunk by the German Air Force in Bari December 1943, scrapped in 1946.
Lech 1934 Swan Hunter , Newcastle upon Tyne 1558 GRT, 790 NRT 1934-1950 1934–1939 cargo ship Gdynia - London, allied transports in World War II, sunk on a mine near Gedser in 1948, lifted in 1949, back into service in 1950, in 1951 for POL on to England, from 1960 to Bremen and Hamburg, scrapped in 1967.
Lida 1938 Swan Hunter , Newcastle upon Tyne 1446 GRT, 788 NRT 1938-1950 Freight ship especially for timber transport Poland - Great Britain, Allied transports in World War II, renamed Gliwice in 1950 , to POL in 1951, out of service in 1967.
Warsaw II 1940 Throw De Noord , Alblasserdam 3437 GRT not on duty ordered by Polbryt in the Netherlands. Completed in 1940 as German booty Ostwind , taken over by the Kriegsmarine as the target ship Bolkoburg . Burned out after an air raid in May 1945 and later cannibalized.
Czech 1934 Götaverken Cityvarvet , Gothenburg 3649 GRT 1949-1951 from 1934 the norwegian refrigerated ship. Sigurd Herlofson shipping company . First sailed in American waters during World War II, then across the Atlantic from 1942. Sold to Polbryt in 1949 when Czech made trips to South America, the Mediterranean and Western Europe, and in 1951 to Polish Ocean Lines .

literature

  • Jan Piwowoński: Flota spod biało-czerwonej [Fleet under white and red] , Nasza Księgarnia Publishing House, Warsaw 1989, ISBN 83-10-08902-3 .
  • Bolesław Hajduk: Great Britain in the economic life of the free city of Gdańsk in the years 1920–1939 , In: Studia Maritima, vol. XXIV (2011) ISSN 0137-3587, pp. 197-222. ( Online version as PDF )
  • Jan Andrzej Hempel: The economic foundations for the development of the national merchant shipping in Poland , Hans Christian's printing and publishing house, Hamburg 1937 ( limited preview in the Google book search )
  • Jan Micinski: Pod flaga "Polbrytu" [Under the flag of "Polbryt"] , In: Ksiega statkow polskich 1918–1945, tom 2 [The Book of Polish Ships 1918–1945, Volume 2] , Danzig 1997

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Naval engineer , co-founder of the port of Gdynia, temporarily acting mayor of the city, promoter of Polish shipping, first director of the shipping company Zugluga Polska , cf. Panteon of Gdynia at gdynia.pl (Polish)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Piwowonski, p. 41f.
  3. ↑ a b Hajduk, p. 212
  4. ↑ Hempel, p. 54, p. 73
  5. ↑ a b c d Waldemar Bałda: Zapomniany armator: Polsko-Brytyjskie Towarzystwo Okrętowe "Polbryt" (Forgotten Shipping Company: Polish-British Shipping Company "Polbryt") at interia.pl
  6. ↑ a b Hempel, p. 79
  7. ↑ Piwowonski, p. 42f.
  8. ↑ Piwowonski, p. 43
  9. ↑ a b S / S Warszawa at Facta Nautica
  10. ↑ a b c Lublin at pol.com.pl
  11. ↑ a b c d e Piwowonski, p. 45f.
  12. ↑ Statek SS Lida at pawet.net
  13. ↑ a b Lech at pol.com.pl
  14. ↑ a b Piwowonski, p. 47
  15. ↑ a b S / S Gliwice at Facta Nautica
  16. ↑ a b Piwowonski, p. 123
  17. ↑ Czech at pol.com.pl
  18. ^ Website of the successor shipping company Polish Ocean Lines
  19. ^ Rewa (1906) in the Polish forum Okrętów Wojennych
  20. ↑ ORP Sławomir Czerwiński - technical data and history of the ship at graptolite.net
  21. ↑ Sławomir Czerwiński at dobroni.pl
  22. ↑ Warszawa (1915) [Polbryt] in the Polish forum Okrętów Wojennych
  23. ^ Premjer SS (1929-1935) at wrecksite.eu
  24. ^ Premjer (1922) [Polbryt] in the Polish forum Okrętów Wojennych
  25. ↑ Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815-1945, Volume 5 Auxiliary Ships II: Hospital Ships, Accommodation Ships , School Ships , Research Vehicles , Port Service Vehicles , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-4804-0 , p 140
  26. ↑ Bolkoburg (+1945) at wrecksite.eu
  27. ^ M / S California Express at warsailors.com
  28. ↑ Czech on the website of the Polish Ocean Line