The Baltic Shipping Company (1938-1958)

Dostępna jest tylko angielska wersja językowa

The Porta Mare publishing house - Pomorska Oficyna Wydawniczo-Reklamowa - proudly presents "The Baltic Shipping Company" (BSC) a monograph on one of two private shipping enterprises established in pre-war Poland, ships and crews of which made history within the Polish Merchant Navy, especially during World War II. Since its inception in December 1938, the company attracted great interest, beyond the shipping world, due to its unusual owners who were employees of Polish shipping companies, students of the Maritime School in Tzew and Polish aristocrats professionally connected with maritime trade.

One of the latter was Tadeusz Olszowski who, primarily due to his qualifications and professional achievements, became director of the BSC. Before all eight shareholders entrusted him with the management of the company he had graduated from the Higher School of Commerce (now SGH Warsaw School of Economics) in 1930, worked in Polska Agencja Morska Branch Office in Garisk, as head of the Agency Department, and from 1937 in Żegluga Polska (run by Feliks Kollat, a manager and famous figure in the shipping business) as head of the Tramping Department, with the immediate prospect of taking over management of the Liner Department.

This book has come into being thanks to the inspiration and initiative of Tadeusz Olszowski's grandson, Jan Peter Olszowski. Not only did he provide the publisher and authors with many valuable documents from family archives concerning the BSC, but he is also the main sponsor of the book's publication, for which I am sincerely grateful. I have had many chances to see him as someone who not only demonstrates utmost respect towards his grandfather, but also successfully continues the business started by his forebear in Poland. He is currently head of the Supervisory Board at J.S. Hamilton Poland, a prestigious company with the biggest network of chemical laboratories recognised across Europe.

Many thanks to the authors of the book, Bohdan Huras and Marek Twardowski, for the work they have put into creating a comprehensible whole out of thousands of written reports and oral state-ments, hundreds of documents and photographs. I hope that it will be not only a page-turner for numerous enthusiasts of nautical non-fiction but also an important document describing the formal and legal conditions for the company's formation, its development, operations during World War Il - which were not devoid of tragic events - and in the early post-war years until its nationalisation in 1949-1950. Being well aware of the documentary value of the book, the publisher and the main sponsor have decided to distribute 50 copies to the leading research libraries in Poland free of charge.

Finally, I would like to thank the institutions and individuals named on the next page for making unique photographs and documents available. These are not all of the highest quality as, for instance, the vast majority of photographs were taken well over 70 years ago with amateur equipment and in war conditions. The same applies to scanned copies of documents, most of which are also several decades old. To minimise these inconveniences for readers, I decided to print the entire book on coated fine paper, which enhances both the exceptional quality of print and good readability of the documents and photographs used in the book.

Jerzy Drzemczewski

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''Bałtycka Spółka Okrętowa 1938-1958'' jest monografią jednej z dwóch prywatnych, przedwojennych polskich firm żeglugowych. Armator ten, jego statki i ich załogi złotymi zgłoskami zapisały się w historii Polskiej Marynarki Handlowej, zwłaszcza podczas II Wojny Światowej. Jego właścicielami było pięciu pracujących w polskich firmach obrotu portowo-morskiego, absolwentów Szkoły Morskiej w Tczewie oraz trzech zawodowo związanych z handlem morskim polskich arystokratów.
Jednym z tych ostatnich był Tadeusz Olszowski, który przede wszystkim, ze względu na swoje wysokie kwalifikacje i sukcesy zawodowe został dyrektorem BSO. Ponad pół wieku później wnuk głównego założyciela tej spółki Jan Peter Olszowski, dostarczając z rodzinnego archiwum dokumenty, wycinki prasowe, zdjęcia itp. zlecił wydawnictwu PORTA MARE napisanie na jej temat książki. Tego trudnego zadania podjęli się znakomici znawcy historii polskiej żeglugi: Bohdan Huras i Marek Twardowski. Książka jest ważnym dokumentem, dobrze ilustrującym formalno-prawne warunki powstawania tej firmy, jej rozwój i działalność podczas II Wojny Światowej, niepozbawioną tragicznych zdarzeń oraz jej funkcjonowania w pierwszych latach powojennych, aż do nacjonalizacji w latach 1949-50.