Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

Maritime Trade and Shipbuilding in Danzig
“Danziger Schiffahrt und Schiffbau in den Jahren 1450 - 1490,” Danziger Hauskalender 1994.
Used with permission. Translated by Reuben Epp, Kelowna, B.C.
Trade, 1400
The voyages of so great and worthy a ship
as the “Peter of Danzig” can only be appreciated
when sea voyages during those times are considered
in the light of conditions as they existed in
the 15 th century. This ship was frequently loaded
with valuable cargo at a time when peace and
security on the seas did not exist and the threat
of piracy was ever-present.
Countries of the east and west in Europe, on
the shores of northern seas, depended upon sea
trade to acquire necessities of life for their people
and to participate in all manner of exchanges with
other countries. In the early history of merchant
shipping, a mixture of unregulated trade came
into being, from which several dominant activities
and trade routes eventually evolved.
The fact that large volumes of cargo could
be carried over long distances by ships at sea
determined sea transport to be superior to overland
transport. This stimulated sea trade among
nations bordering northern waters. Danzig
capitalized on the advantages of sea transport
and mightily boosted its seafaring trade activities.
Salt from the west coast of France needed to be
delivered to the salt-starved east, as did wines
and oil; whereas grain, surpluses of wood, flax,
ashes and tar in the east awaited transportation
to the west.
Among the various wares in the cargoes
of sea trade, most of those from the east were
offloaded and reloaded in Dutch ports, whereas
western goods generally reached ports in Prussia
and Livland (Esthonia) without need of
transfer.
The salt trade from the “Baie” in France attained
highest rank in the west-east sea trade; the
15 th century was later referred to in commercial
circles as the “Age of the Baie Trade.”
Flanders and Danzig
Because of Danzig’s advantageous location
in relation to trade in wood and grain from the
east, that city was able to draw east-west trade
unto itself to the extent that its trading fleet soon
held top rank in long-distance sea trade. The tolerable
sailing conditions on waters of the northern
sea route determined that ships did not need to
carry heavy loads of ballast, thus increasing their
capacity to carry more profitable cargo.
On most such sea voyages in either direction,
harbours of Holland and Flanders became ports
of call for the transfer of cargo destined for other
countries, to take on supplies and fresh water or to
join the safe company of large fleets travelling in
the same direction. The dangers of piracy in those
days were so real that no unarmed ship dared
venture out alone on a lengthy sea voyage.
So it came about that, regardless of final destinations
of trading ships, the port of Brügge (Belgium)
and others of the Rhine river mouth served
as assembly ports for merchant fleets which then
engaged the services of armed guard ships or
convoy ships for mutual protection at sea.
Numerous reports state that in winter months,
when shipping came to rest, such fleets, particularly
those of the salt trade, assembled in Swin
and in Wielingen, on the Flemish coast. Annual
sailings usually included the following itineraries:
from the beginning of spring, probably in
March, ships would leave Flemish ports and
run for the French salt ports of the Baie or the
Brouage. After loading cargo there, the return
summer journey would be undertaken, usually
with calls at English and Dutch North Sea ports,
through the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits and
into the Baltic Sea leading to Danzig, Riga and
Reval. When eastern grain was harvested in late
summer, the shipping of it began and lasted
through the fall. Since most ships unloaded their
cargoes of grain in Flemish and Dutch ports,
the unloaded ships were then freed for winter
shutdown without interrupting planned sea travel,
after which they could again plan for the next
year’s voyages. This schedule determined that
a trading ship on lengthy journeys would make
only one round trip per year. Similar journeys,
although undertaken less often, were to Spanish
and Portuguese salt and wine ports, as reported
by Paul Beneke and Hans Nieve.
The volume of trade in which traders of
Danzig extensively participated was of great
importance to that city. The registers of ships
passing through the straits to and from the Baltic
Sea at that time, show that in some years more
than one hundred ships passed through, of which
more than half were from Prussian or Livland
(Esthonian) home ports. In the city of Reval, the
count was between 20 and 50 ships, in Danzig,
often even more; in the year 1474 alone 73 ships
were counted from the Baie and Brouage. In 1449
the Baie fleet captured by the English numbered
108 ships, of which 50 vessels were those of the
Hanseatic League, among them 14 from Danzig
and 16 from Lübeck.
In addition to ships from Danzig, there were
also those from other countries and cities, mostly
members of the Hanseatic League. From 1474
until 1476, 400 to 600 ships annually visited
Danzig, from 1490 to 1492 about 700 ships
annually, and in the summer of 1481 as many
as 1100 ships sailed from Danzig. As quoted by
Weinreich, they were, “large and small, westward
bound, loaded with grain for Holland, Seeland
and Flanders.”
The sea trade turned a good profit, for after a
few years of service the costs of the ships could
Three granaries (Speicher) that handled part of the extensive trade that flowed through Danzig. (Lech Krzytanowski,
Das Schoene Alte Danzig, photo 4)
be written off. There may have been exceptions
to such profitability among shippers due to
necessary occasional loadings of unprofitable
ballast, damage at sea, sinkings and losses of
ships through capture, all of which could cause
significant losses.
Risk Protection
The overall insecurity of sea trade of the Hanseatic
League and of the merchants of Danzig,
caused shipping companies to band themselves
together for protection. Since no shipping insurance
companies existed as we know them today,
merchants and ship owners covered themselves
against losses by forming partnerships. This was
done by dividing ownership of a ship among
several partners, including directors and captain.
Thus came into existence “multiple-owner-shipping-firms”
in which two to four partners participated,
usually including the initial owner. This
seems to have been the organizational pattern
adopted by most shipping companies engaged in
sea trade in Danzig in those days. In the case of
smaller ships, the ship owner was almost always
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 55