Towarzystwo Żeglugowe Sarmacja

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Towarzystwo Żeglugowe Sarmacja
legal form Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością (1919–1921)
Public Company (Poland) (1921–1929)
founding November 9, 1919
resolution June 21, 1929
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Krakow (1919–1921)
Warsaw (1921–1929)
management Bogumił Nowotny (1919–1924 / 25)
Jan Korwin Kamieński (1921–1929)
Branch shipping

The Wisła

The Towarzystwo Żeglugowe Sarmacja ("Schifffahrtsgesellschaft Sarmacja") was a Polish shipping company that existed from 1919 to 1929. As the first shipping company founded in Poland after regaining independence in 1918 , it marked the beginning of modern sea trade in the country.

history

Prehistory and foundation

The first considerations for creating a Polish merchant navy began after the establishment of the reign of Poland in 1916. In charge was the former Austrian naval officer Bogumił Nowotny , who presented a memorandum on the development of waterways and shipping, including the establishment of a shipping company, and in 1918 took over the Vistula flotilla from the Germans and was temporarily head of the naval department in the Navy Department.

As a driving force, he founded the country's first shipping company on November 9, 1919, together with representatives of the Małopolska Bank and the Polish Trading Company in Krakow. The new company was given the legal form of a Polish GmbH and was endowed with three million Polish marks . The purpose was defined as shipping and trading activities at home and abroad as well as services in the area of ​​handling and storage of goods. The company was headquartered in Kraków , the name Towarzystwo Żeglugowe Sarmacja is borrowed from the historical region of Sarmatia in Southeastern Europe. The company acquired its first ship in 1920, which was christened Kraków (built in 1919, 426 GRT ). Since the country only had the too small port of Puck at the time , Danzig became the home port of all ships of the shipping company.

Flourishing founding years

The Wawel

The Kraków exemplarily reflects the initial difficulties of the beginning Polish sea trade. The crew initially consisted of Austrian and German or Danzig seafarers, the colloquial language on board was German. Only in the course of the following years did Polish seamen strengthen the crew. Since the shipping company could not handle its transports via Gdansk, it initially chartered Kraków for six months for coal transports to Great Britain. The steamer was then used in tramp shipping to Scandinavia , Latvia and the Netherlands , but sank on February 7, 1922 due to ice drifting on the Danish Baltic coast. The freight orders were so profitable for the shipping company that they wanted to buy another ship with the profits they had made.

The two "herring agreements" of November 3, 1919 and January 22, 1921, with which Poland regulated the purchase of fish from Norway, led Sarmacja to contact the Norwegian shipping company Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab . On the basis of these first contacts and with the Norwegians' plan to set up a route to the Baltic States with a stopover in Gdansk, Sarmacja took over some of the fish imports.

Conversion to a Norwegian-Polish joint stock company

The bug is still called Norwegian Lofoten

In 1922 the company was rebuilt: the previous limited liability company was converted into a joint stock company, the capital amounted to 66 million Polish marks, divided into 66,000 registered shares and 1,000 preference shares. The "Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab" took over 45 percent of the shares and the seat was moved from Krakow to Warsaw . It was agreed that no more than 60 percent could belong to Polish citizens. This gave the Norwegians access to the markets in Gdansk and Poland and at the same time had a say in and control over their competitors. The Polish side, in turn, promised further contracts in addition to the financial participation and experience.

In the course of the restructuring, the shipping company bought several ships from the Norwegian shareholder in 1922: It started with the purchase of the Wisła (built in 1908, 634 GRT), followed by the Wawel (built in 1906, 811 GRT), which was made from the insured sum of the lost Kraków was funded. The shipping company used both ships for the export of Polish raw materials in the North and Baltic Seas to Great Britain and to all Scandinavian and Baltic countries. Both ships also wrote Polish shipping history: the Wawel was the first Polish ship to sail to Petrograd in the Soviet Union in 1922 , while the Wisła was the first Polish ship to enter the new port of Gdynia in 1926 . The two old Norwegian freighters Warta (Bj. 1875, 626 GRT) and Bug (Bj. 1873, 688 GRT), which the shipping company used in particular for wood exports, followed as further - and final purchases by the shipping company - before the end of 1922 . The last two purchases did not last long due to their poor condition and the losses they incurred due to the repairs and were scrapped in 1927 (1923 according to other information).

Photo from on board the Jonas Lie , the later Warta

Losses and bankruptcy

In 1923 the shipping company began to make losses. While contemporary data attribute the company's difficulties to insufficient capital resources and a lack of experience, the research has identified other aspects: In addition to the outdated fleet, which caused high costs, the Norwegian shareholders often allowed the ships to return empty to Poland. In addition, they did not give the "Sarmacja" the opportunity to set up line connections, but took them over themselves. As a result, advice was given as early as 1924 on the dissolution of the "Sarmacja". After the Wisła stranded off Terschelling in 1926, the shipping company ceased operations before the end of the year and the Wawel was sold. The formal dissolution took place on June 21, 1929.

The shipping company's ships

Surname Construction year shipyard measurement period of service Notes, whereabouts
Kraków 1919 Frederikshavn Værft , Frederikshavn 426 GRT , 240 NRT 1920-1922 ex dan. Fredrikshavn , chartered out for coal transports from England to France in 1920, followed by tramp shipping to Scandinavia, Latvia and the Netherlands. Sunk in 1922 by ice in the Baltic Sea.
Wisła 1908 Göteborgs Mekaniska Verkstads , Gothenburg 634 BRT
347 NRT 		1922-1926 ex swed. Ernst , norway. Edna , transport of wood, grain and coal to Western Europe and the Baltic States , 1926 first Polish ship in the new port of Gdynia , sunk off Terschelling in 1926 ; upscale; than swedish Runa and Chile. Lontue in service until 1960.
Wawel 1906 Società Esercizio Bacini , Riva Trigoso 811 GRT, 426 NRT 1922-1926 ex ital. Natale , Helvetia , Brisling , Norway. Hauk , Swedish Karen ; like Wisła to Western Europe and the Baltic States; First Polish ship to the Soviet Union in 1922 , Swedish in 1926. Dagny , whereabouts after 1946 unknown;
Warta 1875 Bergens Mekaniske Verksted , Bergen 626 GRT, 348 NRT 1923-1926 ex norway. Jonas Lie , German Danzig ; Scrapped in 1927;
Bug 1873 Bergens Mekaniske Verksted, Bergen 688 GRT, 386 NRT 1923-1927 ex Lofoten , Vesta and Trogh ; Scrapped in 1927;

literature

  • Jordan Siemianowski: Współpraca Polskiego Towarzystwa Żeglugi Morskiej "Sarmacja" z Bergenske Baltic Transport Ltd. oraz Walford Baltic Transports Ltd. w latach 1020–1926 (German: The cooperation of the Polish shipping company “Sarmacja” with Bergenske Transports Ltd. and Walford Baltic Transports Ltd. in the years 1920 to 1926 ), In: Zapiski Historyczne , Tom LXXVIII (2013), p. 119 –143 ( online version as PDF ).
  • Jan Piwowoński: Flota spod biało-czerwonej [Fleet under white and red] , Nasza Księgarnia Publishing House, Warsaw 1989, ISBN 83-10-08902-3 .
  • Jan Andrzej Hempel: The economic foundations for the development of the national merchant shipping in Poland , dissertation Hansische Universität Hamburg, Hans Christian's printing and publishing house, Hamburg 1937 ( limited preview in the Google book search ).
  • Dag Bakka, Per Alsaker: Det Bergenske Damopskibsselskab and Fleet list , In: Skipet. Utgitt av norsk Skipsfartshistorik selskap No. 1, March 1988 (Norwegian), pp. 4–47 ( online version of the Norwegian National Library ).
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The German Merchant Shipping 1919–1939. Volume 2: List of all ships over 500 GRT with all technical and historical data. Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg / Hamburg 1975, ISBN 3-7979-1859-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Siemianowski, p. 121
  2. ↑ Siemianowski, p. 122
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Piwowonski, p. 16
  4. ^ A b Sławek Zagórski: The catastrophe of "Kraków". How did the Polish shipping company "Sarmacja" go under? at menway.interia.pl/
  5. ↑ Siemianowski, pp. 125f.
  6. ↑ Siemianowski, pp. 131f.
  7. ↑ Siemianowski, pp. 135f.
  8. ↑ Hempel, p. 71
  9. ↑ Siemianowski, pp. 137f.
  10. ↑ Jonas Lie at sjohistorie.no
  11. ↑ melt head, p. 84
  12. ↑ Bakka, Alsaker, p. 21
  13. ↑ Bakka, Alsaker, p. 19