Passengers have been travelling along and across the Baltic Sea for ages, but mostly forced by necessity. The main passengers were traders, soldiers and government clerks. Others migrated towards their better life, or life itself.

Travelling on sailing vessels was unpredictable and uncomfortable, sometimes worse than by a horse cart. First passenger services which could be described as „regular” were postal links established in the 17th century between Sweden and its dependences in Finland and Germany. It goes without saying that modern era has started with a steamship. As the Swedish packet boats had status of naval vessels, the first commercial regular shipping service started on 20 October 1835, when the Finnish sidewheeler Fürst Menschikoff set sails from Turku to Stockholm with some 30 passengers onboard...

If the current privatization process of the Polish Baltic Shipping Company (Polska Żegluga Bałtycka – PŻB) is successful, it might redefine the image and balance of power on the Polish ferry market.

PŻB is headquartered in Kołobrzeg – Poland’s middle coast, half way between traditional shipping and port centers of Szczecin-Świnoujście on the West and East coast’s Gdynia-Gdańsk. The company, with the workforce of around 700 people, operates four ferries on three permanent and one seasonal route from Poland, under Polferries trade mark...