Współpraca Polskiego Towarzystwa Żeglugi Morskiej „Sarmacja” z Bergenske Baltic Transports Ltd. oraz Walford Baltic Transports Ltd. w latach 1920–1926

The Polish Society of Maritime Navigation “Sarmacja” S.A. in Warsaw was the first successful Polish shipping company in the Second Rzeczpospolita. The company was set up in 1919 when the former captain of the Austrian navy Bogumił Nowotny and representatives of the Bank of Lesser Poland and the Polish Commercial Society decided to establish a maritime shipping company in Cracow. Originally, in 1920, the company had one ship the Kraków at its disposal, but a year later, during a transshipment of Norwegian herring in the harbour of Gdańsk, it undertook cooperation with a Norwegian shipowner Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab and an English shipowner Walford Baltic Line Ltd. In 1921 both companies merged creating Bergenske & Walford Baltic Transports Line Ltd., thanks to which their cooperation with “Sarmacja” became even stronger. After the collapse of the English-Norwegian company in May 1922, a company called Bergenske Baltic Transports Ltd. based in Gdańsk was created; it owned 45% of “Sarmacja” shares. The Norwegian party, which had a casting vote in the Polish shipping company, started to run a policy of one-sided profi ts aiming at the elimination of the Polish competitor from the mouth of the Vistula river. “Sarmacja” had only 5 obsolete ships at its disposal, which gave rise to an inconvenient situation aggravated by a lack of possibility to establish regular shipping lines. The development of the Polish company did not take place even aft er the Ministry of Treasure had exempted it from paying revenue tax, industrial tax and property tax. Unfortunately, the company was liquidated in 1929 owing to the breakdown of the ship Wisła in 1926 and the fact that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce insisted that the role of Polish representatives in the board of the company should expand.