Discoveries · Gdynia and Jastarnia
Divers find wreck of ORP Gdynia in Puck Bay, long believed scrapped after WWII
Baltictech divers located the sunken ship at shallow depth, only a couple of kilometres from shore, although postwar records said it had been raised and cut up for scrap. The vessel was sunk by German aircraft in September 1939.
In brief
Baltictech divers found the wreck at shallow depth, a couple of kilometres from shore, despite postwar records saying the ship had been fully raised and scrapped.
German Luftwaffe aircraft bombed ORP Gdynia on 2 September 1939 while it was at anchor south of Jastarnia, killing about 35 crew members.
The Maritime Office will give the site legal protection, and divers are working with the Naval Museum in Gdynia to recover and conserve the wheel with its column.
- 28 AugShip mobilised and commissioned into the Polish Navy as ORP Gdynia
- 2 SeptSunk in a Luftwaffe air raid while at anchor south of Jastarnia
- Six days after the sinkingCommander Captain Stanisław Kosko dies in hospital
- October 2026Wreck identified by Baltictech divers in Puck Bay
Wreck found where records said none remained
Divers from the Baltictech group have located the wreck of ORP Gdynia in Puck Bay, lying at shallow depth only a couple of kilometres from shore. The team identified the vessel from plates bearing Polish inscriptions and from distinctive structural parts. Postwar records held in the archives of the Polish Maritime Salvage (PRO) listed the ship as fully raised and cut up for scrap, so the find contradicts that account.
Tomasz Stachura, leader of the Baltictech group and a diver, said the team was surprised to find a section of the ship still on the seabed, with a large steering wheel at its centre. He said the PRO had not raised the whole wreck after the war and had instead destroyed the remains with explosive charges. He described the dive as the closing episode of the season:
“But what happened to us at the end of the season on the bottom of Puck Bay is truly an extraordinary story.”
A wartime ship sunk in 1939
The vessel was built in the 1920s at the Gdańsk Shipyard as the passenger ship SS Gdynia and sailed before the war for Żegluga Polska on cruises across the Baltic and Gdańsk Bay. It was mobilised on 28 August 1939 and commissioned into the Polish Navy as ORP Gdynia. On 2 September 1939 German Luftwaffe aircraft bombed it while it lay at anchor south of Jastarnia, killing about 35 crew members. Its commander, Captain Stanisław Kosko, the last director of the Naval School in Gdynia, was seriously wounded and died in hospital six days later.
Recovery plans and next steps
Stachura said the site will receive legal protection from the Maritime Office (Urząd Morski). The divers are working with the Naval Museum in Gdynia on a plan to recover and conserve the steering wheel together with its column. He described the wheel as beautiful and large, and said the work needs care:
“The operation to recover the wheel will be daring, but the exhibit is valuable enough for Gdynia that it is worth doing it precisely and without haste.”
An official presentation of the findings, along with a lecture on the ship's history and on Captain Kosko, is scheduled for Monday, 26 October, at 17:00 at the Naval Museum in Gdynia.