Mosaic of the wreck of the Polish battleship ORP Wicher

During the production of the material for the series Mystery Hunters of the Baltic, the divers of Baltictech were blessed with fantastic visibility. Thanks to this a beautiful mosaic of the ORP Wicher wreck was created.

In January 2021, the Baltictech group was collecting underwater documentation and producing material for the first episode of a new TV series Mystery hunters of the Baltic. The object of their interest was the wreck of the Polish ship ORP Wicher from 1939. Thanks to the fantastic conditions that the winter Baltic Sea offered, they managed to create something unique. This is how a mosaic of the wreck of a Polish destroyer was created.

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Visibility of up to 25 metres does not happen very often in the Baltic Sea. And certainly not in its shallower parts. That’s why the Baltictech divers knew they couldn’t waste such an opportunity.

Tomasz Stachura, who specialises in wreck photography, devoted a lot of time and took a lot of pictures of the wreck of the Polish destroyer. Then, thanks to a great deal of work in post-production, a wonderful mosaic of the wreck was created. Today, each of us can see the state of what remains of the ORP Wicher ship in the smallest detail on our computer screen.

You can download a mosaic of the ORP Wicher wreck in high resolution here.

Thewreck of ORP Wicher is not only an important element of Polish history. The remains of the ship are a target and a place for many dives. The location is a very interesting alternative especially for less advanced divers. The remains of the a great ship rest on the sandy bottom at a depth of about 6 m. This is not a demanding dive, but as you can see, the visibility here can sometimes surprise you very nicely.

Polish destroyer ORP Wicher

ORP Wicher measured 106.9 metres long and 10.5 metres wide, with a displacement of 1400 tonnes. The propulsion unit consisted of two sets of Parsonas steam turbines with a total output of 35,000 hp. The ship’s operational range was set at 3,000 nautical miles and top speed was 33 knots. The crew of the Wichrz consisted of 10-12 officers and 150 non-commissioned officers and sailors.

ORP Wicher played its first serious role (apart from escorting other Polish vessels or courteous visits to European ports) in 1932, during the so-called Gdansk Crisis. Thanks to the decisive actions of the ship’s commander, Polish ships again gained the right to use the port of Gdansk as their home port, as well as all the privileges that go with it.

An interesting episode took place in 1935, when the ship played in the film Rapsodia Bałtyku [Rhapsody of the Baltic ] by Leon Buczkowski.