On September 1, 1939, dredging operations in Poland came to an abrupt and terrifying halt. In Danzig (Gdańsk), crews were jolted awake by the thunder of gunfire from the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein as it opened fire on the Polish military depot at the Westerplatte peninsula. The Second World War had begun, and the crews found themselves exactly where it started.

For the workers on-site, building geopolitical tensions suddenly became an immediate race for survival. As the region descended into conflict, communication cut out, borders slammed shut, and standard routes vanished.

The journey home became a chaotic, dangerous, and deeply individual undertaking. With military mobilizations, shifting frontlines, and checkpoints blocking their path, crews had to navigate an unstable continent to get back to Belgium, often enduring long, stressful detours and weeks of uncertainty.

In a matter of days, dredging activities in the region came to a halt, caught in the sudden, violent reality of a world at war.