Ship Sołdek

Medals available for purchase at the museum shops in the Granaries on Ołowianka Island and at the Maritime Culture Centre!

“Sołdek” was the first seagoing ship built by Polish shipbuilding industry. The preliminary design was developed by a team of Polish engineers led by M.Sc. Eng. Henryk Giełdzik. The working documentation for construction was prepared by the French shipyard Augustin Normand in Le Havre. The construction in Gdańsk Shipyard (established October 19, 1947) was supervised by Eng. Jerzy Doerffer (later professor and rector of Gdańsk University of Technology).

The keel for this prototype B-30 type coal-ore carrier was laid on April 3, 1948 at slipway A2. After official speeches, the construction site was blessed by the parish priest of St. Jacob’s Church in Gdańsk, after which the first rivet was hammered by then Minister of Shipping Adam Rapacki. During construction, about 45 tons of ship steel were assembled weekly. The ship required about 300,000 rivets, weighing approximately 6% of the total hull weight. Launched on November 6, 1948, the ship was named after outstanding shipyard worker Stanisław Sołdek, with his wife Helena serving as godmother.

On October 22, 1949, “Sołdek” under Captain Zbigniew Rybiański embarked on its maiden voyage to Szczecin, where the flag was officially raised on October 25, 1949. Until January 2, 1981, “Sołdek” completed 1,479 sea voyages. During 31 years of service, the ship transported over 3.5 million tons of cargo and visited more than 60 ports.