This year, the conference of the Estonian Maritime Museum brought together for the first time naval warfare historians from Finland, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. They will publish a joint collection of articles on the development naval defence in the region.
‘Naval defence requires knowledge of its history. As in other areas, the more we take into account past experience, the less we will fail in future decisions. The conference allowed us to look at the period between the last two world wars, which marks the beginning of modern naval defence. The following periods, including since the restoration of the independence of the Baltic States, require the same level of research,’ said Commander of the Estonian Navy Commodore Jüri Saska in the opening speech of the conference.
The conference ‘The navies of the Baltic Sea Region during the Interwar Period: development of fleets, organisations, and naval strategies 1918–1939’ was initiated and conducted by the Estonian Maritime Museum.
‘When studying the history of Estonian maritime affairs, we cannot ignore naval warfare. This is one of the most complex areas in terms of scientific research. With the conference, we got a new perspective. Firstly, we proved that we are able to work together academically and internationally in the field of naval warfare history. Secondly, we are now even more open to opportunities to continue researching the history of naval defence,’ said Hele Kiimann, Head of Research at the Estonian Maritime Museum.
The conference held in Tallinn on 1 June was the first of its kind in the Baltic States. The experts who spoke at it intend to co-operate in the future as well.
‘With the conference, we overcame the language barrier. The research so far has mainly been conducted in different regions in the local language. We will publish a collection of academic articles based on scientific presentations. At the heart of it will be the history of the development of naval defence in the Baltic Sea region, and the collection will be completed in the first half of next year. With the successful holding of the conference dedicated to the history of naval warfare, we certainly took a big step forward in terms of research, and we can now move on to the next levels in this field,’ confirmed Arto Oll, a researcher in the field of naval warfare at the Estonian Maritime Museum.
The conference was attended by Mikko Meronen (MA, Curator of Finnish Naval History in Forum Marinum), Michael Hesselholt Clemmesen (MA, Brigadier General (retired), Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Danish Defence College), Professor Michael Epkenhans (PhD), Professor Krzysztof Kubiak (PhD, Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce), Professor Ēriks Jēkabsons (PhD, University of Latvia), Matthew Heaslip (PhD, Lecturer in Naval History, University of Portsmouth), Juha Joutsi, (curator at the Military Museum of Finland), Martin Kelly (MA, University of Portsmouth), Professor Maciej Franz (PhD, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Arto Oll (PhD, researcher at the Estonian Maritime Museum), and Romualdas Adomavičius (MA, Deputy Director and Chief Manager of Collections of the Lithuanian Sea Museum).
The topics of the presentations are published on the website of the Estonian Maritime Museum and can be watched on this website.
