Baltic patrol ship

Baltic patrol ship on the Vistula River near Janov. Photo collection of Valdemar Danielevich

The service of the Baltic patrol ship began in 1920 with the protection of a ferry crossing connecting several Polish cities in East Prussia with the Republic of Poland. With adventures, changing names and owners, it lasted until the mid-XNUMXs.

In January and February 1920, Poland took over Pomerania without Gdansk, which was given to us by the Treaty of Versailles.

For him, the Free City was created with its own government and coin. Poland included the following cities: Torun, Bydgoszcz, Grudziadz, Nowe nad Vistula, Svece, Chełmno and Tczew. The border along the Vistula between the Second Polish Republic and East Prussia in the section from Biala Góra (German: Weissenberg) to Korzenevo (Kurzebrak) was established in the middle of the river or along its right bank.

As a result of the plebiscite, unfavorable for Poland, held on July 11, 1920, we received only a few villages on the right bank of the Vistula, whose inhabitants voted for Poland. It was, among other things, Janovo (Johannesdorf) located on the Vistula River, opposite Wrath. However, in Korzhenev, where the majority of economic considerations voted to remain in East Prussia, we were provided with a river port, the so-called. winter with slippage. The village itself remained within German borders. Poland also received a railway-road bridge in Opalen, which was completely located on the territory of the Polish state. It was to patrol this Polish enclave in Prussia of the Vistula flotilla in October 1920 that a Baltic patrol was assigned, armed with two machine guns, because they feared attempts at provocation by the Germans. His tasks included the protection of the ferry crossing in the Gnev-Yanovo section, the protection of the port in Korzhenev and the protection of the bridge. His service in this department lasted until July 30, 1921. The commanders were bcm. Vitkovitsky, and from April 1921 - bcm. Filipovsky.

Before becoming a patrol ship, the future Baltik was a passenger ferry. In 1912, the authorities of the Vistula city of Neuenburg am der Weichsel (Polish Nowe) decided to order a ship that would maintain contact with the village of Gross-Nebrau on the opposite bank. This large village was connected by a narrow gauge railway to Kwidzyn (Marienwerder), and there was also an evangelical school and a private school, a sawmill, a steam mill, shops and inns with gardens and a dance hall. A doctor and a dentist practiced there. Until now, transport in the form of rowing boats has been very painful for the inhabitants. The order was placed in Brandenburg at the Havel, at the shipyard of the Wiemann brothers (Gebrüder Wiemann). The finished ship was handed over to the city in January 1913, but it reached the Vistula on March 27. It was the 164th ship built at the Brandenburg shipyard. It was named after the city, i.e. Neuenburg.