"Mysteries of the Baltic Wrecks" - episode 10 "Georg Büchner" - premiere

The new year brings us the first sad news, at 22.40, on Canal+ Discovery channel there will be a premiere of the tenth and at the same time the last episode of the documentary series “Mysteries of the Baltic Wrecks”. The main actor of the “grande finale” will be one of the most recent wrecks lying on the sandy bottom of the Baltic Sea, the passenger ship “Georg Büchner”.

On 30 May 2013, the German passenger ship MS “Georg Buchner” sank in the waters surrounding Cape Rozewie. The vessel, built in 1951, was not on another voyage, however, but on its way to the Lithuanian town of Klaipeda, where it was to be cut up for scrap. These plans became complicated late in the evening around 8 p.m. 25 minutes later the vessel disappeared under the surface of the water and settled at a depth of 35 metres.

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[blockquote style=”2″]”The controversial sinking of a historic ship, which is being sold for scrap against the wishes of the inhabitants of Rostock, Germany. Georg Büchner – a luxury liner, once serving the route from Antwerp to the Belgian Congo, loses buoyancy in unknown circumstances near Rozewie, while being towed to a scrap yard in Klaipeda, Lithuania. The tow is cut and the ship goes down.”[/blockquote]

The wreck, 154 metres long and almost 20 metres wide, lies lying on its starboard side, with its port side exposed, like a giant platform situated at a depth of 16 metres. MS “Georg Büchner” was built in 1950 by Cockrill-Ougree of Hoboken, Belgium, as one of five sister passenger-cargo liners and entered sea service in 1951 as “Charlesville”. For sixteen years she sailed between Antwerp and Matadi in the Belgian Congo, for the Compagnie Maritime Belge, before being sold to Germany where she served as a training vessel.

[blockquote style=”2″]”In this episode, together with his former passenger Freddy Korthoudt, we discover just how much of a luxury passenger ship the Büchner, once called the Charlesville, was. Was it sunk specifically to obtain insurance? Why was there no watch, and why were the previously welded window portals completely open? Tomek Stachura, together with a team of divers and a German journalist passionate about the Büchner’s history, Merlin Franke, are trying to establish the real course of events on 30 May 2013. Among others, Frederik Janssens, a Belgian memorabilia collector, will help with this. For the first time, divers will descend to the wreck, which sank only five years ago and has not yet been destroyed by the sea.”[/blockquote]

The city of Rostock bought it in 1991 and renamed it “Georg Büchner”. It served as a floating hotel and symbol of Rostock harbour. As money for its maintenance became scarce, efforts were made to return it to Antwerp and to turn it into a museum ship as a maritime heritage of Belgium.

Unfortunately these efforts failed to save the liner and it was finally decided to sell the ship for scrap. When “Georg Büchner” ex “Charlesville” set sail on her last voyage, more than a thousand people came to say goodbye to her in Rostock harbour.

More about the fate of the liner “Georg Büchner” you can read in our articles about this ship.

The series premieres on the Canal+ Discovery channel and via the nc+go app.

Source: canalplus.pl

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