Polish Navy - Origins

Origins

The Polish Navy has its roots in naval vessels that were largely used on Poland's main rivers in defense of trade and commerce. During the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), this small force of inland ships for the first time saw real open sea combat. At the battle of the Vistula Lagoon, a Polish privateer fleet defeated the Teutonic Knights Navy and secured permanent access to the Baltic Sea. The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) acquired for Poland the strategic naval city of Danzig (Gdańsk), and with it the means of maintaining a large fleet on the Baltic. In 1561, following a victory over Russian Naval forces in the Baltic, the Polish Navy acquired a second key port at Riga, in modern-day Latvia.

At that time, as Poland and Lithuania became involved in conflicts in Livonia, Polish king Zygmunt August organized a Sea Commission (Komisja Morska) operating in the years 1568-1572 and supported the operations of privateers, but that met with opposition of the Poland's primary port, Gdańsk (Danzig), which saw them as a threat to its trade operations (see Baltic grain trade). This led to the development of a privateer port in Puck.

Around the start of the 17th century, Poland became ruled by the House of Vasa, and was involved in a series of wars with Sweden (see also dominium maris baltici). Vasa kings attempted to create a proper fleet, but their attempts met with repeated failures, due to lack of funds in the royal treasury (Polish nobility saw little need for the fleet and refused to raise taxes for its construction, and Gdańsk continued its opposition to the idea of a royal fleet). During the reign of Zygmunt III Waza, the most celebrated victory of the Commonwealth Navy took place at the Battle of Oliwa in 1627 against Sweden, during the Polish-Swedish War. The victory over Sweden secured for Poland permanent access to the Atlantic, and laid the foundations for expeditions beyond Europe. The plans for the independent fleet fell through shortly afterwards due to a badly executed alliance with the Hapsburgs who in 1629 took over the fleet.

The Commission of Royal Ships (Komisja Okrętów Królewskich) was created in 1625. This commission, along with the ultimate allocation of funds by the Sejm in 1637, created a permanent Commonwealth Navy. Władysław IV Waza who took the throne in 1632 bought 12 ships, and built a dedicated port for the royal navy (Władysławowo). The Fleet was destroyed in 1637 by Denmark, without declaration of war. Support for this navy was weak and it largely withered away by the 1640s; the remaining shops were sold in the years 1641-1643, which marked the end of the Commonwealth Navy.

The Duchy of Courland, by the time a fief of Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth had a strong navy: it established colonies on Tobago island in the West Indies (named New Courland) and on the estuary of Gambia River.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, although the dominant force in Central and Eastern Europe during the 16th-18th centuries, never developed its navy to full potential. The proportionally small Polish coastline and the limited access to the Atlantic never allowed for a massive buildup of naval forces, especially not to the level of colonial powers such as England and France. The Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century brought an end to the independent Polish Navy.