Research background and purpose:
Maintaining a national fleet under a country's flag is increasingly difficult in globalised maritime transport. Still, many countries support their merchant fleets for strategic, economic or symbolic reasons. Poland’s merchant fleet, once among the world's top 20 in the 1980s, now consists of only 14 small, ageing vessels. The article identifies causes of this decline and explores public attitudes toward the importance of a national fleet and willingness to support measures to reduce the cost of maintaining ships under the Polish flag.

Design/methodology/approach:
Two research methods were applied: historical and institutional analysis, and a representative survey (n=1001). The first established the context for investigating public opinion on whether Poland should maintain a national fleet and adopt supportive policy.

Findings:
Findings show that while the public values a national merchant fleet, it is less inclined to support economic incentives or regulatory changes to sustain it. High employment costs, especially those from Poland's social security system, are the main barrier to competitiveness. In a global context of officer shortages and wage pressure, rebuilding the fleet is desirable but economically challenging. Public support exists, but successful maritime policy requires not only systemic reforms but also better communication with society.

Value added and limitations:
The article demonstrates that shipping is important not only from a business perspective, but also from the perspective of the public interest. There is identified a "bottleneck" (indirect labor costs) as the decisive factor in rejecting the Polish registry – the desire for a cost advantage over competitors necessitates the use of an appropriate registry selection strategy. The article portrays shipping as a key element of the supply chain to Europe. The issue of managing human capital with appropriate qualifications is addressed – the shortage of officers and the reasons for their withdrawal from the profession are raised. Also, the article touches on issues related to change management. A limitation of article was the public opinion data are cross-sectional, capturing attitudes at a single point in time. Although the sample was demographically representative, it did not specifically capture the views of key stakeholder groups, such as shipowners, trade unions, maritime professionals, or policymakers.