Puck

Puck lies on a sheltered bay of the Baltic in Kashubia, where a market and port existed long before the medieval town. It received town rights in 1348 under the Teutonic Order and joined the Prussian Confederation in 1440. After the Thirteen Years' War, Puck became a Polish royal town and the residence of a starosta, whose castle also housed an arsenal.

In the sixteenth century Polish rulers sought a base for ships on the Baltic. When autonomous Gdańsk would not admit the royal fleet, vessels chartered by the Crown came to Puck in 1567. The small harbour thus acquired a role in royal naval ambitions, while its bay continued to shelter the local commerce and fishing of the wider Baltic Kashubian coast.