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Wilhelm
Gustloff Shipwreck Expedition May 2003
History
| Team | The
Amber room | wreck
images | Findings
Expedition Images
| Online article
| scale model | Historic
images | German Gun Boat
| The sinking
In May of 2003 a team of American and
English divers led by Mike Boring united with Polish Divers
to explore the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff and bring back
the best possible images they could with the current technology
available. In doing so the tragic story of the Gustloff could
be brought to the surface for others to learn of and discover
for themselves the true story of history’s worst maritime
disaster. Please use the navigation bar at the top of the page
to learn more of our Gustloff expedition and the history of
this shipwreck.
Photographs of the wreck
Two of the worlds leading shipwreck photographers joined the
expedition to make 35mm stills of the wreck, the images on these
pages are mainly video captures and several specific photographs
have been kept from web publication for their own works. To
use rare images of the wreck commercially please contact Leigh
Bishop through this website.
The Wilhelm Gustloff
Many people are aware of such maritime disasters that took great
loss of life such as that of the Titanic in 1912 or Lusitania
in May 1915 however at the time of writing this few are aware
of the Nazi War time Ocean liner ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’.
The Gustloff sank in Jan 1945 north of Poland as she escaped
the collapse of the eastern front, aboard with her approx. 10,000
refugees, Nazis and submariners their families alike escaping
to the west. |
| 7,700 would go down with the great
ship allowing the Wilhelm Gustloff her morbid place in the history
books as the worst maritime disaster of all time. The world
continues ignorant of this once ‘strength through joy’
great liner. The Gustloff story is one of pride, power and glory
although a story that inevitably turned its face to a disturbing
grief through human greed, anxiety and above all ignorance to
life itself. The face of today should surly be reminded of this
grim past. With the ability of today’s underwater explorers,
technology and transportation it is possibly to bring the stories
of past such as the Gustloff tragedy to life. Even if through
only a haunting reminder. |
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Almost 4 times as many men women and children
lost their lives in this single incident than that of 9/11!&
6 times that of Titanic. When our team left England & the
US for this expedition in May of 2003 little if anyone would
have heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff, her history and of course
her tragic loss. |
| With Gunter Grass’s release of Crabwalk as well as these
diving expeditions perhaps we can turn just a few heads and
educate historically. |
The navigation bar above will guide
you through the larger extent of this story both the diving
of recent times and of course the history of the ship and its
sinking. Mike Boring began his exploration into the Gustloff
when he once brought an antique book covering the subject back
when he lived in the US. The ship itself begins her story in
from her launch in 1938, taking her name from the assassinated
Nazi Martyr Wilhelm Gustloff a close friend to Adolph Hitler
and strong  |
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Nazi party representative. At 25,484 Tons she
was the pride to all Nazi followers and enjoyed life as a cruise
ship through the so called ‘‘strength through joy’
years leading up to the break out of WW2. Although a great Ocean
liner she was also a victim of the propaganda trend being a
direct attack to the west to raise heads towards the classless
liners. Hitler had built the Wilhelm Gustloff for all that followed
the Nazi way of life from the
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| poor to the rich all could enjoy a cruise aboard
this luxury liner. There was no 1st,2nd and 3rd class passengers
aboard the Gustloff all could enjoy the liner for what she was.
On the out break of war she was momentarily turned into a hospital
ship before residing the war years as a barracks home to serving
submariners of the German U-boat training school at Danzig bay
Prussia. (Now north east Poland). As the eastern front collapsed
during the later part of the war the Russian Red army |
| advanced on the Germans. With revenge
on the Nazi’s the Russians spared no-one as they slaughtered
every one in their path. As word spread through German occupied
pockets of the outraged Russian advance the largest evacuation
of its kind began as Karl Donitz pushed over 3 million refugees
into the west. 10,000 of these refugees fled the Russians aboard
the Wilhelm Gustloff desperately hoping for a new life.As the
Gustloff made passage west across the southern Baltic sea those
aboard could never have imagined their dreadful fate to come.
As freezing sleet and snow was pushed across the decks by the
forceful night wind the Russian submarine S13 fired two torpedo's
into the vessels port side sinking the ship below the surface
of the cold Baltic waters along with 7700 people. |
A diver films the wreck of the Wilhelm
Gustloff in the Baltic Sea Photo by
Brad Sheard
Click image to enlarge |
| Russian Submarine ace Alexander Marinesko then went onto torpedo
the General Stuben another German refugee liner; all told Marinesko
and his crew of S13 would be responsible for the loss of over
10,000 men women and children in a single mission. An achievement
he would never be credited for until the 1960’s. |
Key Map showing the location of the ill fated Nazi ships
 |
The 2003 diving expedition to the wreck was primarily
an exploratory trip in every sense; this was a virgin expedition
to a country we were not accustomed to and a place in which
we had to find our own ground. Our goal was achieved as we explored
the wreck and brought home with us digital video footage and
35mm still images. The expedition wasn't without incident and
as we found out nothing runs exactly to plan however having
said that our objectives were achieved. Today the ship known
as the Wilhelm Gustloff lies on the bottom of the Baltic Sea
in cold water of some 3ºc 25 miles north of Poland. As
well as fleeing refugees was the Gustloff carrying a cargo that
some say was the famous Amber
Room worth an estimated $350 million, if she was did the
Russians turn to the wreck after the war ended in search of
their treasure the Nazi’s had looted from the during the
war. Can we even begin to challenge the secrets of this shipwreck.
Time will tell - This is her story:-
For these pages of Deep-Image I am in debt to expedition leader
Mike Boring and all
the 2003 team that made this happen, Mike
Cross for any continued work he carries out in the Soviet
Union and Ziemowit Kierkowski
for his information and images from Poland.
Left ; Situated in the
heartland of Europe, Poland has been both a bridge and a front
line between eastern and western Europe. Today, free from outside
interference, Poland is the place to go if you're interested
in seeing how a nation picks itself up off the floor and tries
to reinvent itself. It's a multifaceted country where the capital
and medieval old towns are coddled by contemporary city slickers
and where horse-drawn carts negotiate country lanes in areas
where the 20th century appears to have got lost somewhere down
the road.
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Text copyright Leigh Bishop 2003
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