"Captains 3". Another book by Krystyna Pohl

The Zapol publishing house from Szczecin has published a book by Krystyna Pohl – “Captains 3”. As the title suggests, this is the third publication in a series featuring captains of great shipping. The official christening of the book took place on May 29th this year at the Stara Rzeźnia Euroregion Culture Centre in Szczecin.

- There are two companies on the cover: Polska Żegluga Morska, thanks to whose financial support the book was published, and Zapol publishing house, which printed it beautifully - said Krystyna Pohl during the meeting in Stara Rzeźnia. - This is my fifth book, which I picked up from Zapol. In this book I presented the profiles of 92 captains who worked, work for various shipowners, sail on very different ships and I was interested in how they got to the captain's bridge, what made them choose this profession. I was interested in their adventures, memories, reflections.

As she noted, a few decades ago, young people chose the profession of a sailor because, above all, they wanted to see the world and experience adventure. Today, the criteria for choosing this profession are completely different.

- In this book I also presented women who commanded or command ships - added the author. - There is also a married couple of captains, Polish-Croatian. They do not sail together, because she commands container ships, those with a capacity of 7,000 TEU, and he loves tiny ones, ships with a maximum of 5,000-6,000 DWT. Despite such a difference, they met two or three times in the Atlantic and once in the Mediterranean. Just like in the previous two volumes, I chose captains who are interesting in various ways, who have had interesting experiences, have worked, work on very interesting ships and have different passions. I remember how I came across a captain who is the author of plays and books. There are also captains here who have experienced dramatic moments at sea, e.g. a captain who was kidnapped along with his ship and crew by Somali pirates, who was in captivity for 82 days. There is also a profile of a captain who wrongly spent 582 days in Mexican prisons because he was suspected of participating in the smuggling of drugs, which were found in one of the holds. I tried to describe the fate of captains in such a way as to show how much navigation has changed in recent decades, how completely different dangers and adventures await captains.

The laudation was delivered by Captain of the Military Order Józef Gawłowicz.

– This volume has been published in accordance with the best publishing principles, with a concise introduction by the chief navigator, Captain Zdzisław Niewęgłowski – he emphasized.

The godmother of the book is Dr. Agnieszka Deja, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs at the Maritime University of Technology in Szczecin.

- In accordance with maritime custom, today as a godmother I am performing the baptism, but also the symbolic launching of a book that tells the story of wonderful people - captains, who above all fulfil their dreams - said Dr Deja. - Across lands, seas and oceans, travel the book to readers, glorify the name of Polish captains, praise shipowners, maritime universities. I give you the name: "Captains 3".

The godmother sprinkled the book with a rose dipped in champagne. She added that the bottle with the commemorative letter would be given to the captain of the "Navigator XXI" and would be launched. The finder would receive "Captains 3" with the author's autograph.

The christening and launching of nautical books is – according to the late Captain Wiktor Czapp – the youngest maritime custom, which was born in the middle of the last century in Malta.

(ek)