Poland's wedding to the sea

On 10 February 1920 at Puck (PL) General Józef Haller, commander of the Pomeranian Front, rode on horseback into the Bay of Puck and threw a platinum ring into the sea. The symbolic wedding to the sea completed Poland’s takeover of Pomerania, awarded to it by the Treaty of Versailles. For the first time since the partitions Poland had a Baltic coast of its own.

Pomerania without a war

The Treaty of Versailles gave Poland most of West Prussia, but Poland could not take it over until the treaty came into force. That happened on 10 January 1920. The army had been ready since the autumn: on 19 October 1919 the Pomeranian Front (PL) was formed, under the command of Haller, former commander of the Polish Army in France. It included units of that army, called the Blue Army from the colour of its uniforms. The recovery of Pomerania was to proceed peacefully, step by step, as the Germans withdrew.

Polish troops entered Pomerania on 17 January 1920. The next day units of the 16th Pomeranian Infantry Division took Toruń, on 23 January the army entered Grudziądz, and then Bydgoszcz and other towns. There were incidents. There were some attempts at armed resistance and some sabotage, but the operation as a whole passed without major fighting. On 10 February the soldiers reached the coast.

Poland, however, received only a modest strip of sea. According to dzieje.pl it amounted to 147 kilometres, of which 74 were on the shore of the Hel Peninsula, 24 on the open sea and 49 on the shore of the Bay of Puck. Other calculations give about 140 kilometres. There was no major port on this coast. Danzig, which the Poles regarded as the natural outlet of the Vistula, had become a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations.

A ring from Danzig

The authorities gave the ceremony great importance. Haller was accompanied by the minister of the interior, Stanisław Wojciechowski, a twenty-member delegation of the Sejm, the new authorities of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Rear Admiral Kazimierz Porębski, the head of the British mission and the American naval attaché. The special train stopped first in Danzig. At the station the starost, Dr Józef Wybicki, presented the general with two platinum rings, made for the occasion with money from the Polish community of Danzig.

At Puck, at a station decorated with flags, units with colours and bands waited, along with delegations from the towns and crowds of people from the surrounding villages, most of them Kashubians. The 1st Naval Battalion and the Krechowce Uhlans with artillery lined up on the shore. Haller said: “Today is a day of honour and glory! It is a day of freedom, for the White Eagle has spread its wings not only over Polish lands but over the Polish sea as well.” The clergy blessed the Polish naval ensign, which was hoisted on the mast to gun salutes and the national anthem as a sign that the Navy was taking up its watch on the Baltic. The standard-bearers dipped their colours towards the water. A Kashubian fisherman, skipper Jakub Myślisz, symbolically handed over the guard of the coast to a Polish sailor. Mass was celebrated at a field altar.

Then Haller rode into the sea and threw one of the rings into the water, putting the other on his finger. According to some accounts the Bay of Puck was covered with ice that day, which the Kashubians took as a good omen. A commemorative post was driven into the seabed, with the Jagiellonian eagle on the side facing the sea and on the landward side the inscription: “In the Year of Our Lord 1920, on 10 February, the Polish Army with General Józef Haller at its head took the Polish sea into its everlasting possession.” The Sejm delegation threw onto the waves a wreath with a sash reading “Polish workers greet the Polish sea”. Finally the most important guests signed the founding act of the wedding. The next day fishermen at Wielka Wieś held a similar ceremony with Haller taking part.

The wedding to the sea became a lasting part of Polish memory, and Wojciech Kossak immortalised it in a painting. Poland solved the lack of a port a few years later by building a new port from scratch at Gdynia (PL).