5. LEGACY

In 1979, Bronius Krikštopaitis’s book of memoirs, “By Sea Routes: Memoirs of a Sea Captain” (in Lithuanian “Jūrų keliais. Jūrų kapitono atsiminimai”), was published.

...to the best of our abilities, to restore that brightest phase of the period of independent Lithuania, when we, proudly hoisting our tricolour, navigated the seas on our own ships and made Lithuania known in the ports of foreign nations.

4. IN THE WAVES OF WAR

The Captain on the transfer of the Klaipėda Region to Germany on 22 March 1939: I must say that we were overwhelmed by sudden and unpleasant events. With the loss of our port, many of our hopes and maritime ideas perished. (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago)

Even after the outbreak of the war, the steamship “Kaunas”, commanded by B. Krikštopaitis, transported Lithuanian products to Belgium and the Netherlands. On the night of 17 November 1939, while anchored in the North Sea, “Kaunas” was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine.

The second mate and a deck cadet on duty on the bridge noticed a passing submarine with a semi-submerged conning tower, and the chief mate, who had gone to his cabin after his shift, heard a buzzing sound he had never heard before. Suddenly, a terrible crash was heard, ... “We are sinking!” (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago)

In 1940–1941, B. Krikštopaitis had to sail on nationalised ships of the Lithuanian SSR, but he gradually withdrew from working on ships under occupational conditions. In 1944, the sea captain moved to Germany and, in 1949, to the USA and settled in Chicago.

A member of the Lithuanian Seamen’s Union Abroad. He never returned to Lithuania. Bronius passed away on 27 September 1999 in Chicago, having fulfilled his childhood dream of reaching the sea horizons and opening up the sea routes for Lithuania.

PHOTOGRAPHS:

16. Captain Bronius Krikštopaitis on the bridge of a steamship, 1936–1939.

17. Sea captains (from left) Romanas Vilčinskas-Vilkas, Bronius Krikštopaitis and Stasys Dagys at a Lithuanian community event in Chicago, USA, 1981.

3. A STEP ONTO THE CAPTAIN’S BRIDGE

In 1933, Bronius Krikštopaitis started his seafaring career on seagoing steamships. He was sailing for more than two years as a navigator on “'Friesland” and “Rimfrost” and, in January 1936, he became the captain of the Lithuanian merchant steamship “Maistas”.

…a bottle of champagne was smashed against the ship’s bow. Against the grey winter background, our tricolour flag was being slowly hoisted. ... Among the many ocean liners docked in Hamburg, our “Maistas” looked modest, but to us, a few Lithuanians, it seemed large, as large as the event today. ... On 29 January 1936, at around 9:00 a.m., “Maistas”, decorated with all available flags and having greeted Klaipėda with long, wailing blasts, moored at the quay of Klaipėda Winter Port. (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago)

PHOTOGRAPHS:

9. The refrigerated steamship Barfrost or Rimfrost at the Maistas company quay in the Port of Klaipėda, 1936–1939.

10. Bronius Krikštopaitis, captain of the steamship Maistas, in the wheelhouse, 1936.

11. The steamship Friesland in the Port of Klaipėda, on the Danė River, 1933.

12. Identity document of a resident of the Klaipėda Region, belonging to Bronius Krikštopaitis, 26 September 1933.

13. The steamship Maistas in the Port of Klaipėda, 1936–1938.

14. B. Krikštopaitis served as captain of the steamship Kaunas from 1938 to 1939.

15. The steamship Marijampolė of the Lithuanian Baltic Lloyd shipping company, captained by Bronius Krikštopaitis from 1937 to 1938. Port of Klaipėda, 1937.

2. MARITIME PRACTICE AND STUDIES

You cannot learn seafaring only in the classroom or on ships moored in the port. In 1925, young sea cadets were assigned to the sailing ships “Olivebank” and “Archibald Russell”, both registered in the Åland Islands, Finland. The goal was to gain experience working as part of the crew, acquire practical skills and undertake a voyage around the world.  

The shipping company allowed us to freely choose which ship we would like to sail on. The city youth decided to sail on a sailing vessel “Olivebank”, and we, the country greenhorns, on the ship “Archibald Russell” …which was now to become our floating home and school for the next three years. (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago)

After the sea practice on a sailing ship, Bronius Krikštopaitis, like the other eight Lithuanians, was sent in 1929 to finish his maritime studies at Åbo (Turku) Navigation Institute. After their practical and theoretical knowledge was assessed, they were admitted to the first year of studies for ocean-going navigators and in 1930 passed the examinations for ocean-going navigation captain diplomas.

To become real captains, we still needed to complete an internship, that is, to serve as navigators for at least two years and independently command the ship during our duty shifts. ...few of us were admitted to Klaipėda’s German cargo ships “Friesland”, “Gotland” and “Stephanie”. (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago) 

PHOTOGRAPHS:

2. Students and lecturers of the Maritime Department of Kaunas Higher Technical School, 1923–1924. B. Krikštopaitis is in the top row, first from the right.

3. The four-masted barque Archibald Russell, early 20th century.

4. Lithuanian students of the Åbo Navigation Institute with their fellow students, 1930–1931.

5. Lithuanian maritime cadets on the deck of the sailing ship Archibald Russell. From left: Mykolas Limba, Stasys Dagys, Aleksandras Rasiulis, Bronius Krikštopaitis, Antanas Mėlynis and Kazys Daugėla. 1926–1928.

6. Lithuanian maritime cadets on a yardarm of the sailing ship Archibald Russell, in the roadstead of Sundsvall, Sweden, 20 May 1929.

7. Lithuanian cadets who had completed their practical training at sea, at Åbo Navigation School. From left: Aleksandras Rasiulis, Kazys Daugėla, Feliksas Marcinkus, Mykolas Limba, Benediktas Monkevičius, Vytautas Babarskis, Stasys Dagys and Bronius Krikštopaitis. 1929–1930.

8. Bronius Krikštopaitis on the anchor capstan aboard the sailing ship Archibald Russell, 1927–1929.

1. A YOUNG MAN'S DREAMS

Bronius Krikštopaitis was born on 14 December 1902 in Alantės village (in present day Panevėžys County). The worldview of the young man was only the waters of the Juoda River in Vadokliai, where Bronius attended school, or the neighbouring Lake Juodis, which broke into the horizon of Lithuania’s endless fields.

Having not fully completed the programme at Panevėžys High School, the young man surrendered the dream about sea horizons.   In the autumn of 1923, he entered the Maritime Department of Kaunas Higher Technical School.  

Driven by enthusiasm, quite a large group of young people gathered in it [the maritime department], though only 16 of us finally remained faithful to the sea. ... Sea captains were the lecturers, a few of whom spoke Lithuanian very poorly. We had no choice but to use maritime textbooks published in a foreign language. ... When summer holidays approached, we all went to Klaipėda for maritime practice or, as the school director, engineer Graurokas, used to say: “To get used to the sea.” (B. Krikštopaitis By Sea Routes, 1979, Chicago)

PHOTOGRAPHS:

1. Bronius Krikštopaitis during his studies at the Maritime Department of Kaunas Higher Technical School, 8 March 1924.

Present-day heroes undergoing spiritual crises, searching for themselves and their place in the world go to the sea, too. In Marija Kavtaradzė’s film “Summer Survivors” (2018), a psychologist Indrė (actress Indrė Patkauskaitė) together with two patients, Paulius (actor Paulius Markevičius) with bipolar disorder and Justė (actress Gelminė Glemžaitė) who tried to commit suicide, go to a clinic in Palanga. On the way, they stop on the coast of the Baltic Sea, where the tranquillity allows the three of them to catch their breath, if only for a short time, and feel “normal”, simply young people enjoying the summer. An epic novel by Rimantas Kmita, “The Southern Chronicles” (2024, director Ignas Miškinis), turned into film takes us to the changeable period of the 1990s, when Lithuania after the restoration of Independence put a great deal of effort into catching up with the West as soon as possible. After a high school graduation party, Rimantas (actor Džiugas Grinys) and Mindė (actor Robertas Petraitis) find themselves by the sea and symbolically bid farewell to their adolescence. The roaring of the sea, a night spent in the dunes and the dawning morning signify a start of a new stage in life full of hopes and poetry. The sea also accompanies inner transformation of main characters: a former ballet dancer Malvina (actress Jūratė Onaitytė) and her beloved Kipras (actor Liubomiras Laucevičius), in Mantas Verbiejus’s film “Sand in Your Hair” (2025). Even though they both are of a mature age, they seemingly throw off the burden of years when stepping into the waves of the Baltic Sea, discovering strong feelings and a joy of life again. A severe coastal landscape and sites of Klaipėda city create a gloomy atmosphere in Ignas Jonynas’s drama “The Gambler” (2013). Leaden colours of the sea reflect spiritual turmoil of ambulance staff members Vincentas (actor Vytautas Kaniušonis) and Ieva (actress Oona Mekas) who gamble for death; whereas the juxtaposition of water and land highlight the drama of their crucial choice. In the final scene of the film, Ieva swims into the open sea which becomes the only place to escape and cleanse herself, the place where silence, tranquillity and fundamental truth of nature reign.

Quotes 

“The sea doesn’t want a damn thing, and I just wanna be like the sea. But still, no matter what, I’m gonna sit right here and wait it out, until all the thinking, the hurting and all these stupid cravings finally pass.” – Rimantas (actor Džiugas Grinys) (film “The Southern Chronicles”).

“All Lithuanians have sentiments for the sea.” (Ignas Jonynas, see: https://ve.lt/naujienos/kultura/filmai/ignas-jonynas-losejas-yra-apie-luzio-karta-patekusia-i-brutalu-materialistini-pasauli)

Memories of childhood, family stories, dreams and unfulfilled wishes – all these appearing in contemporary Lithuanian films are related to the sea. It becomes a setting where the past and present, the memory and imagination meet. In Linas Mikuta’s film “Roman’s Childhood” (2020), an eight-year-old boy Romanas with his friend Gytis spend their summer by the sea. Bright, colourful scenes render carelessness of childhood, and the sea signifies a sense of endless freedom, the time when the world seemed to be full of opportunities. A natural beauty of the Baltic Sea and its seaside is used by Vytautas Katkus (“The Visitor”, 2025) to reveal a hero’s transitional state. Danielius (actor Darius Šilėnas) returns to the place which is connected to his past, but he feels like an alien there. After he falls asleep, he immerses himself in another reality: the sea, where a strange island with a growing apple tree floats around. This repetitive imagery seemingly erases boundaries between dream and reality, enhancing a sense of inner uncertainty. A similar manner to view the past is also employed by characters in Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’s film “Seneca’s Day” (2016); they belong to the so-called ‘lost generation’ who used to have youthful dreams, but they forgot about them. Simonas (actor Dainius Gavenonis) is trapped in the present and keeps returning in his thoughts to the past, trying to understand where the euphoria, expectations and plans for the future that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union have gone. In the film, the sea becomes a metaphor for lost opportunities, allowing reflection on the disappointment of an entire generation and an escape from reality.

Quotes  

“The sea, the summer, the holidays – all these naturally associate with childhood. However, it also seems that we have been on holiday a long time ago or simply were not alone with our thoughts, didn’t get any rest. That’s exactly what I wanted to show: it’s not that the holiday is compulsory, but rather that it is a must to stay alone with one’s own thoughts, and that is very important for everyone.” (Vytautas Katkus, see: https://www.bernardinai.lt/rezisierius-v-katkus-apie-filma-svecias-nereikia-ziurovams-nurodineti-kada-liudeti-o-kada-dziaugtis/)

“It is said that the sea appearing in dreams symbolises life; however, in the film “Seneca’s Day”, it becomes the symbol of death because the main character is afraid of life, tries to hide from it inside his own shell.” (Kristijonas Vildžiūnas)
“The sea is a specific boundary, an edge which can mean both end and beginning at the same time. It is risk, danger and also cosmos full of opportunities, wonderful things.” (Linas Mikuta)

From anxiety about the future of the state in the interwar period Lithuania to the tragedies of the World War II and the jump of Simas Kudirka into the freedom, the sea remains a silent yet expressive witness of history which retains the traces of collective memory. Intuition of an approaching catastrophe is strong in Karolis Kaupinis’s film “Nova Lituania” (2019) which brings us back to the late 1930s. Vilnius Region has been lost, Klaipėda annexed and Kaunas was permeated with a heavy feeling of the approaching war. The sea, which is the object to visit for a prime minister Jonas Servus (actor Vaidotas Martinaitis) and a geography professor Feliksas Gruodis (actor Aleksas Kazanavičius), reminds of a vision of “spare Lithuania” and unimplemented idea of the maritime state. The sea in Vytautas Žalakevičius’s film “Weekend in Hell” (1987) obtains another meaning. Two fugitives from a concentration camp find themselves in a Nazi resort camp by the sea and jump into the water to escape. Here, they find a shelter for a short time because, once a one undresses, one remains simply a human who breaks free from superimposed political and social identities. A feature film by Giedrė Žickytė, “The Jump” (2020), recreates an exciting story of a Lithuanian, Simas Kudirka. In 1970, he jumped from a Soviet ship “Soviet Lithuania” to a U.S. border guard cutter “Vigilant”, but was returned back. The Atlantic Ocean where this renowned attempt to escape took place becomes a setting for resistance and a symbolical place between Soviet “concentration camp” and the free world. That world is also admired by “The Children from the Hotel America” (director Raimundas Banionis, 1990). A rock music festival taking place at the seaside allows young people experience the feeling of freedom and community, if only for a short period of time; however, early in the morning, it is destroyed by Soviet militia squads armed with rubber batons. In Lina Lužytė’s film “The Castle” (1990), the sea becomes a metaphor for the way back from emigration. A grandmother (actress Jūratė Onaitytė) living in Ireland still feels a sense of attachment to Lithuania and continues living on memories, whereas her granddaughter Monika (actress Barbora Bareikytė) is more focused on the future. In the final part of the film, Monika allows her grandmother to walk into the wide sea (in the final scene, the grandmother keeps wading into the sea and her granddaughter is unable to keep her) which separates her from Lithuania. 

Quote

“When looking at the sea from a shore, it seems vast, endless, eternal, and this comforts; it will not disappear anywhere, it will stay forever. When I’m away, it will definitely be here.” (Lina Lužytė)
 

In Lithuanian animated films, the sea is usually depicted as a sacred mythological space where two worlds meet: the human and the supernatural. Special focus is given to interpretations of a fairy-tale “Eglė, the Queen of Serpents” and a legend “Jūratė and Kastytis”. The film “Eglė, the Queen of Serpents” (2003) by Aurika Selenienė and Algirdas Selenis conveys the mythological atmosphere of the fairy-tale based on the ancient Baltic belief. In Antanas Skučas’s film “Žilvinas and Eglė” (2013) created following a poem by Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, a drama of a human-serpent identity is revealed in a stylised manner. The sea becomes the setting for a crucial choice: Eglė’s entrance into the depths of this natural element signifies not only love, but also an irreversible shift in her fate. The sea is the domain of Jūratė, the queen of the Amber Castle. In a film “Amber Castle” (1959) initiated by Gražina Brašiškytė, the sea is as unpredictable as the love between the goddess Jūratė and the fisherman Kastytis. Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė’s film “Jūratė and Kastytis” (1989) stands out for its experimental expression and surreal aesthetics of collage with prevailing images of waves and amber, whereas the ballad of Maironis is interpreted in a free and modern way. Valentas Aškinis’s “The Adventures of Odysseus’ (2012) is the first Lithuanian full-length animated film that was shot using the classical celluloid animation technique. The sea obtains a universal mythological dimension which becomes the space for chaos and heroic challenges. It symbolises the power of gods, human vulnerability and obstacles which Odysseus has to overcome while travelling back home to Ithaca.  

The theme of the sea in films is usually linked to the existential experience: the endless horizon emphasises the fragility of human life, and the rhythm of waves reminds of the flow of time and continuous change. In Algimantas Puipa’s film “A Woman and Her Four Men” (1983) created on the basis of a novella by Holger Drachmann, the world of old Prussian Lithuanian fishermen is inseparable from the sea. It determines the fates of a woman (actress Jūratė Onaitytė) and all her four men who obey the eternal cycle of nature. The water and the sand make the wheel of existence meaningful, where birth and death constitute an inseparable whole. In Andrius Šiuša’s film “And He Bid You Farewell” (1993), a peninsula of the Curonian Spit becomes a shelter place for strangers and people with mental disorders. In one of the most remarkable scenes captured by a cameraman Algimantas Mikutėnas, all characters gather in a rusty ship cast ashore. Here, they can be who they really are and escape the reality and break free from the norms superimposed by society, if only for a short while. In Šarūnas Bartas’s “Freedom” (2000), the scenery of North Africa’s coast highlights loneliness of the film’s characters and total impossibility of freedom. The raging ocean becomes an equal participant of the story, whereas birds, crabs and gigantic waves much more harmoniously blend into the world order than people who are wandering along the coast. An architect Jonas Pajaujis who is a hero of a film “Good Day” (director Henrikas Šablevičius, 1993) seemingly becomes one with the landscape of the island of Gotland. Even though the sea has separated him from occupied Lithuania, it remained a sign of spiritual bond with the homeland. In Vytautas V. Landsbergis’s film “The Old Man by the Sea” (2022) dedicated to the director’s father who is a politician and a musicologist, Vytautas Landsbergis, in front of the sea he reflects on his life path, accumulated experience and a sense of eternity.  

Quotes 

“The seaside as a shelter for misfits, fantasisers, geniuses, as a space where they can hide from routine, ‘normal relationships’ was most suggestively shown in Andrius Šiuša’s film “And He Bid You Farewell” (1993). Perhaps no other film exploited the diversity of landscapes, textures, perspectives, nature and architecture of the seaside and the lagoon region with so much love and selfishness (spelling is correct, the text is available on-line at: https://literaturairmenas.lt/kinas/rasa-paukstyte-vieta-atostogauti-ir-filosofuoti-o-gyventi). The creation of the film was sponsored. A. Šiuša, a cameraman Algimantas Mikutėnas, an artist Naglis Karvelis created the film in Neringa; it was based on a novella “Notes of Mauritz Bred” by a Lithuanian writer in emigration, Eduardas Cinzas, (Rasa Paukštytė. “The Place to Spend Holidays. Or Maybe to Live? Fragments of the Seaside in Lithuanian Films” (in Lithuanian ‘Vieta atostogauti ir filosofuoti. O gyventi? Pajūrio fragmentai lietuviškame kine’). In: “Literatūra ir menas”, 07.06.2024, No. 11 (3793).)

“In our mythology, the sea is a strong, archetypical symbol. Of eternity, infinity, god, afterlife; by the sea, we always feel this restless and blessing greatness.” – V. V. Landsbergis (see: https://lsveikata.lt).