What awaits us at Baltictech 2017? - wreck diving

The Baltictech 2017 conference is fast approaching and the excitement is growing. What exactly will be waiting for us at the thresholds of the Science and Technology Park in Gdynia on the weekend of 25-26 November? This question arises repeatedly, so we decided to prepare an answer to it. We hope that our mini-cycle presenting the invited speakers and the topics they discuss will help you plan your time at the conference better and more efficiently!

Wreck diving – a mine of historical knowledge, but also a number of dangers. In the area of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea there have been conducted for years researches of the “treasures” remaining after the World War II. This year at Baltictech we will hear accounts of searches for various types of wrecks, both in our home waters and in very remote parts of the world.

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Dr Benedykt Hac, head of the Department of Operational Oceanography at the Maritime Institute in Gdańsk, is a hydrographer with 35 years of experience in surveying the sea (specialising in wrecks). He is also a former commander of the research vessel ORP “Heweliusz”, Helcom Submerged expert and member of the prestigious “The Explorers Club”.

His expeditions always oscillate around the subject of wrecks. He has co-organised such undertakings as the search for the wreck of ORP “Orzeł” in the North Sea (expeditions since 2008 up to Santi), the operation of retrieving 11 out of 44 cannons from the wooden wreck lying on Ławica Słupska and environmental research on dangerous wrecks in the Gulf of Gdańsk.

As part of the Chemsea and Daimon project he has conducted searches for chemical weapons located at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and in the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits. In the last thirty years he has participated in numerous successful searches for shipwrecks, ships and aircraft in Polish maritime areas.

At Baltictech 2017, Dr Benedykt Hac, Eng, will tell us about the threats from wrecks and munitions found in the Baltic Sea.

Vic Verlinden is underwater photojournalist, technical wreck diver, and CCR cave diver. He is the co-organiser of the technical diver fair: Tekdive – Europe.com.

He started diving in 1975 and worked as a dive guide in the Red Sea in the 1980s. He is the author of four books on diving and over eighty reports in diving magazines in Belgium, France, UK, USA and Russia, among others.

At Baltictech 2017 he will tell us about his more than forty years of activity as a wreck diver. His career has been full of interesting finds and photo essays.

The wrecks he will talk about during his presentation are: HMHS Brittanic, SS Burdigala, U455, U2511, Christiaan Huygens, SS Leopoldville, SSTubantia, HMS Victoria, Espana, Justicia, De Roompot. HMS Defence, Focke wulf 58. She is also credited with the discovery of the East Indian frigate “De Roompot”.

All information can also be found on the official conference website baltictech.com

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