Qualla: SS Polonia https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SS Polonia https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910 SS Polonia: Introduction https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. She was launched in July 1910 as Kursk, registered in a Russian Empire that would not survive her first decade afloat. By the time she went to the breakers in 1939, she had carried three names, three flags, and the troops of an empire that no longer existed. The Polonia was an ordinary ship that lived through an extraordinary stretch of history, and for much of it she steamed past Barra Head Lighthouse, southbound on the great-circle track between Northern Europe and the Atlantic world.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/gf4b-ss-polonia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SS Polonia: Glasgow Iron https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Barclay, Curle & Co. on the River Clyde built her as yard number 482, launched on 7 July 1910 and complete by September. She was 450 feet long, with a 56-foot beam, and powered by twin four-cylinder quadruple-expansion engines driving twin screws. The numbers read like an enginee...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/gf4b-ss-polonia-glasgow-iron.mp3 0:06 2 full SS Polonia: A Troopship in the Great War https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. When the First World War tore through the shipping lanes, the British Shipping Controller chartered Kursk and placed her under Cunard Line management. She became one of the countless Allied troopships moving men across oceans they had never expected to cross. The October Revoluti...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/gf4b-ss-polonia-a-troopship-in-the-great-war.mp3 0:06 3 full SS Polonia: From Latvia to Poland https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In 1930 the East Asiatic Company sold its Latvian subsidiary to Polish owners, who renamed the firm Polskie Transatlantyckie Towarzystwo Okretowe, the Polish Transatlantic Shipping Company. The ships were operated by Gdynia America Line, which restructured in 1934. Polonia carrie...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/gf4b-ss-polonia-from-latvia-to-poland.mp3 0:06 4 full SS Polonia: Quiet Ship, Loud Century https://qualla.com/ss-polonia-1910/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Polonia never made headlines. No sinking, no rescue, no celebrity passenger. She was workaday tonnage, the kind of ship that builds and sustains empires without anyone noticing. But trace her register and you trace the convulsions of twentieth-century Europe. Russian Empire to So...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/4/b/ss-polonia-1910-wp/gf4b-ss-polonia-quiet-ship-loud-century.mp3 0:06 5 full