| Wilhelm
Gustloff Underwater Shipwreck Images
History
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The Amber room | Gustloff home page
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Findings
Expedition Images
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images | German Gun Boat |
The sinking
The wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff lies in a relatively
shallow depth of just under 50min the southern Baltic sea just north
of Poland. The water temperature during the 2003expedition was a
low as 3degrees C on the bottom and rose to a comfortable 5-6 degrees
C on the decompression stops. Team members were protected by the
cold waters by C-bear thermal undersuits which worked excellent,
in fact the only thermal issues were with freezing cold hands. After
only 11 minutes the divers almost lost the feelings in their fingers
using wetsuit gloves. These images were taken using the best of
the divers ability's considering the conditions.
Copyright of these images belongs to Mike Boring, Brad
Sheard, and Leigh Bishop.
Above; The
starboard deck amongst gantry davits and lifeboat winch's.
Photo by Brad
Sheard
Above; Another
of Brad
Sheard's Blk&white images of the Starboard promenade deck.
Above; Teak
decking still remains in place on the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff
as can be
seen in this image again captured by Brad
Sheard.
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 |
Above; Two
images by Mike Boring show deep image author and chris Hutchison
creating images of the very stern of the wreck. Here clearly the Gothic
design words
spelling Wilhelm Gustloff can clearly be seen. copyright Mike Boring
Another of Mike Borings images of the divers
filming and photographing the stern of the ship. |
Chris Hutchison swims across the stern poop
deck. Note the safety rails still in position. |
From the main top deck passengers were able
to walk down this staircase to the lower poop deck.
|
Another of Mike Borings images of the divers
filming and photographing the stern of the ship. |
Teak decking from the starboard promenade deck
now beginning to break up. |
The main upturned starboard hull with a porthole
open from when she sank. |
A huge Capstan appears pushed high above the
deck with a second deck level above. |
The Gustloff's main mast fallen out across the
deck now lying east. |
Portholes still on the wreck today are seen
in double rows. |
This porthole from the wreck now on display
in Kiel Museum was recovered during 1988. |
More images from Leigh Bishops
collection will be posted in due time
Back to Gustloff home
page
All Images copyright of the authors as stated
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