The Baltic Valiant

by Ken Williams

Founded in 1919, the United Baltic Corporation Limited (UBC) was for many years the only British-based company operating regular sailings from the British mainland to Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After the Second World War the company slowly re-established and extended its trade links in the war-torn eastern Baltic, much of which was controlled by the Soviet Union. By the mid- 1960s, the UBC fleet reached a zenith of 15 vessels, all of which were on a direct scheduled service between the UK, Gdynia, Riga, Leningrad (now St .Petersburg) plus ports along the south and west Finnish coast.