For centuries small and medium-sized Finnish sailing vessels transported cargoes of wood and various wood products from the southwestern part of Finland to Mecklenburg, to Schleswig-Holstein and to various Danish ports. The existence of such a trade is not exceptional: Denmark and the German coast west of Rostock lacked sufficient forest resources and had to import increasing amounts of building materials. On the other hand, potential export areas abounded not only in Finland but all over the northern and northeastern Baltic. That trading traditions - at least as far as Finland was concerned - were concentrated in the southwestern areas, the towns of Uusikaupunki (Nystad), Rauma and Pori (Björneborg) and the rural areas of the so-called “Vacka-Finland” (vakka = wooden vessel or basket), were a medieval tradition. It is possible that the early contacts had something to do with the emigration of merchants from the south coast of the Baltic to this area: After settling down, these newcomers, who often turned into hard-core burghers in these small, local towns, retained commercial contacts with their former home areas. Even the mercantile economic system that came afterwards contributed to preserve this tradition: The towns in question were not granted full trading rights before the second quarter of the nineteenth century (in other words, they were not real “staple” towns), nevertheless, they were allowed to trade within the Baltic. Thus, for centuries the interests of the local merchants and shipowners were not diverted from the Baltic trade by any more lucrative prospects beyond the Sound.

However, what is more amazing is the fact that this traditional shipping managed to survive during the revolutionary changes in the shipping world, which took place in the late nineteenth century. Still in the 1920s and 1930s, a score of Finnish sailing vessels earned their living by transporting sawn wood to ports in Denmark and northern Germany, and a couple of wooden three-masted schooners with fore-and-aft rigs were built for this trade even in the late 1940s. These last (auxiliary) sailing vessels did not sail for long on the Baltic and they were strange features indeed in an era with increasingly rapid and regular transport systems - not only by fast motorized ships but also by cars and by plane.