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IN SEARCH OF THE AMBER ROOM


The sinking of the Nazi ocean liner Wilhelm Gustloff cost the lives of more
than 7700 people. And aboard the ship, it was rumoured, was an incomparable
Russian treasure. Leigh Bishop travelled to Poland to photograph the rarely
dived Baltic wrecK.

My cozy C-Bear 250 thinsulate undersuit had kept me warm throughout the dive, so I was happy to wait another four minutes though some dry suit gloves would have been nice. We had discovered the Wilhelm Gustloff lying across a white-sand seabed,listing to port and with decks extensively collapsed to that side. The amidships section had almost certainly fallen victim to a salvage attempt. At the shallowest point atop the wreck, many starboard davits remained in position, with their working mechanisms and surrounding deck winches.

Until now it had been unclear whether the wreck had been salvaged, but when I dropped to the seabed to starboard of the stern the evidence was clear only the empty prop shafts remained. While staying in north-western Poland I asked local people if they had heard of any salvage on the wreck. All agreed that the Russians had almost certainly been responsible, soon after the war ended. But what was the Russian interest in a Nazi liner carrying refugees fleeing the Red Army as the Eastern Front broke down? It's no secret is that the Russians searched extensively for the famous Amber Room shortly after the war. Described as the eighth wonder of the world, this palace room was constructed by Frederick I of Prussia

The gothic letters spelling Wilhelm Gustloff are clearly obvious on the ships stern section.

One of History's greatest missing works of art the famous Amber Room.

and completed in 1709.Its decoration consisted of 55sq m of carved amber paneling, set in polished mosaic. In 1941, as the Nazis advanced on Leningrad, the Russians had no time to dismantle the Amber Room and left it at the mercy of the looting Nazis. The amber panels were last seen in Königsberg two days before the Wilhelm Gustloff sailed and, while some say they are hidden deep in German mine, others are convinced that the Amber Room sailed with her. Whether the Russians salvaged the wreck in search of the amber said to be worth $300 million is unknown. Our Anglo-American expedition was led by US wreck-diver Mike Boring, who defined the trip as exploration in every way including our stay in Poland

Mike Boring expedition leader.

The name of the town in which we stayed seemed appropriate it was Hel but the Wilhelm Gustloff lay 24 miles north of a small town named Leba. Finding suitable safe dive-boats to reach it proved to be one of our more difficult tasks. Ziemowit Kierkowski, a local technical diver, joined us on our dives. He said we were lucky with the weather, as he and his colleagues had managed to get onto the wreck only twice in past years. Each day our boats would be boarded by armed officials, so we knew that diving this wreck was being taken seriously. Our second and subsequent dives saw us better prepared as to how long we could last under water, filming and photographing as we went. A huge number of portholes lay around the site, many in the vast hull-plates that draped huge sections of the wreck. We grew accustomed to landmarks such as the prominent lifeboat davits, the mast lying across the seabed to port, and particular deck areas. With navigation becoming more effective, we were able to make more sense of how the wreck lay. Mike Boring swam to the tip of the bow and provided further evidence of salvage, in that the anchors were nowhere to be seen!None of us saw any human remains, something that had preyed on our minds in the build-up to the trip. This expedition was a photographic project and none of the team penetrated the liner, deep within which the remains of many of those victims probably rest. After each day's diving we were able to establish more of the wreck as we watched the digital film shot. Paul Dixon had his video on his Aquazepp and circumnavigated the wreck. Chris Hutchison chose to film while free-swimming, wisely leaving his collection of DPVs in his van, safely away from a Polish dive-boat! Writer and photographer Brad Sheard had travelled from Maryland and did the same as me, setting his stills camera and tripod up on the 45° decks. The Polish divers reckoned it was bizarre they said we looked like two wedding photographers! Hold-hatches and their combings are often obvious on ocean liners, but few were seen on the Gustloff because of the array of twisted and broken wreckage amidships. If the Amber Room still exists deep inside the wreck, any team would have difficulties even knowing where to start. I had studied a scale model at Kiel Museum in Germany and was able to locate where the ship's bell would have been, but found only an empty hanger. I later discovered that the bell had been raised years ago as a memorial by Polish divers. The Gustloff 2003 expedition team led by Mike Boring included Dan Stevenson, Andy Aston, Tim Elley, Brad Sheard, Paul Dixon, Chris Hutchison, Mike Cross and Leigh Bishop. Meet the team here. Right: A diver swims across the poop deck of the Gustloff wreck. Read a brief history of the wreck here.