The route from the buoy in the Pomeranian Bay to the quays of Szczecin

The Świnoujście-Szczecin fairway is, according to Wikipedia, an artificial waterway 67.35 kilometres long, or about 38 nautical miles. It begins at the approach buoy at the anchorage in the Pomeranian Bay and leads through the Świna in Świnoujście, the Mielin Canal and the Piast Canal, then across the Szczecin Lagoon and the Oder Estuary (Roztoka Odrzańska), and further along the Oder (the Szeroki Nurt and the Domiążą) to the port of Szczecin. The Port of Szczecin states on its website that the city lies 68 kilometres inland from the sea, so the rounded figure differs slightly from the entry in Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia the fairway is about 250 metres wide, belongs to waterway class Vb, and is marked by four fairway gates, eight leading marks in total, and 52 buoys and dolphins. The entrance to the port in Świnoujście is sheltered by breakwaters, and the mouth of the Świna was enclosed by two stone breakwaters in 1818-1823, according to Wikipedia.

The technical depth is not constant along the whole length. Wikipedia, citing a regulation of the minister for maritime economy, gives 14.3 metres for the first 3.1 kilometres, 13 metres up to kilometre 5.28, and 10.5 metres for the whole remainder of the fairway to Szczecin. At the entrance to the port is the port of Świnoujście, and the leading line to it is marked by the Stawa Młyny beacon and the Galeriowa beacon, 522 metres away, according to Wikipedia.

Why Uznam was cut through

Świnoujście arose from a struggle for a sea route. According to Wikipedia, Prussia deepened the Świna from the 1730s in order to avoid the tolls for passing through the Peene strait, which belonged to Sweden. The settlement of Swinemünde was founded in 1743, declared a seaport in 1746, and received town rights in 1765.

The Piast Canal was dug to improve navigation between Szczecin and the Baltic. Wikipedia gives the years of construction as 1874-1880, while the Encyclopedia of West Pomerania speaks of work on the canal and the fairway in 1875-1900. It cuts through the south-eastern part of Uznam island between the Szczecin Lagoon and the Świna. After its completion the Karsibór peninsula became an island.

The dimensions of the canal differ depending on the source. Polish Wikipedia gives a length of 8 kilometres and a depth of 12.5 metres, and the English version of the entry about 12 kilometres and 10 metres. Until 1945 the German name Kaiserfahrt was used, that is the Emperor's Canal. The present name was fixed officially in 1949, and Wikipedia calls it ahistorical, because the canal has nothing to do with the Piast dynasty. The breakwaters of the fairway gate at the canal are, according to Wikipedia, 430 metres (east) and 550 metres (west) long and replaced the destroyed breakwaters from the early 20th century. In 2015 the Maritime Office in Szczecin completed the modernisation of the canal's bank reinforcements.

The Mielin Canal and the Mieleński Cut

These two names are easily confused. The Mielin Canal lies in Świnoujście, is according to Wikipedia 4 kilometres long, was built in 1911 and is also part of the fairway. According to Wikipedia it cut through the former island of Mielin, which as a result became a peninsula.

The Mieleński Cut (Przekop Mieleński), by contrast, is a canal in Szczecin, in the Oder floodplain (Międzyodrze). According to Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of West Pomerania it is about 5 kilometres long and 10.5 metres deep, leads from the Oder to the Parnica and belongs to the water area of the port. Until 1945 it was called Mölln Fahrt, in 1945-1949 the New Cut (Nowy Przekop), and the present name was introduced officially in 1949. It is linked to the Oder by the Grabowski Canal.

The section across the Lagoon and dredging

The part of the fairway across the Szczecin Lagoon, from the mouth of the Oder to the Piast Canal, is according to the Encyclopedia of West Pomerania 19.5 kilometres long and about 10 metres deep. It was laid out at the end of the 19th century, and in the 20th century it was deepened and straightened. During periods of ice it is patrolled by icebreakers.

The fairway is constantly being modernised. In a communiqué of 21 December 2020 the Maritime Office in Szczecin described a programme to modernise the fairway to a depth of 12.5 metres: by that day about 12 million cubic metres of spoil had been dredged and deposited on the artificial islands W22 and W28 on the Lagoon. The turning basin at Ostrów Grabowski in Szczecin was then being rebuilt from its former diameter of 280 metres and depth of 10.5 metres to a diameter of 362 metres and a depth of 12.5 metres. On the section from the first fairway gate to Szczecin, compulsory pilotage was introduced for vessels longer than 50 metres.