The first civilian shipyard Ernst visited was called Baltikum Shipyard. According to its director, Baltikum was a small town in the East Frisian Islands off the northern coast of Germany, which was where the shipyard's name came from.
In East Africa, especially in the east, there were many place names ending in -root, -den, and -burg, much like in Southern Germany. East African officials, on the other hand, rarely named places that way.
But it was not entirely absent. For instance, the Ruvuma River had originally been the border between East Africa and the Portuguese Angola Colony, with many military outposts along it, so there were many places with "burg" as a suffix.
Many East African names had simply been copied and pasted from Germany, so it was hardly strange for Baltikum Shipyard to bear such a name.
"Your Highness, our Baltikum Shipyard specializes in small and medium-sized fishing vessels. We rank fairly high among East African shipyards in this field. Every year, we produce around forty fishing boats, with a total tonnage of over two thousand tons, specifically for fishermen operating between Pemba Channel and Zanzibar Channel."
The hulls Ernst saw in the shipyard were indeed not large, so this output was quite impressive, since the civilian vessel sector in East Africa had never been prosperous to begin with.
This could be seen from the dietary habits of East Africans. Although East Africa possessed vast maritime waters, its demand for seafood did not match its population. It might have made sense if East Africa were a landlocked country, but it was truly a nation spanning two oceans.
In contrast, shipbuilding around East Africa's inland lakes was highly developed, especially in the Great Lakes Region. The area around the Great Lakes Region was an important producer of grain and cash