Piotr Bednarski was born in 1934 in Horeszkowce, a town in Eastern Poland invaded by the Soviets in September 1939.

Deported to Siberia with his family during the war, he was the only survivor of his family.

He returned to Poland after the war and trained to become a teacher, but his passion for the sea ultimately kept him away from teaching: he spent his life working in the Merchant Navy and wrote two books.