Divers exploring the silty floor of the Bay of Puck have located the remains of the Polish naval vessel ORP Gdynia, upending decades-old maritime records that insisted the ship was entirely salvaged and scrapped after World War II. The discovery, announced at the close of the 2026 diving season by the Baltictech group, reveals that a substantial section of the sunken hull and a large ship’s wheel remain intact just a few kilometers off the coast.
Archival Records Contradicted by Bałtyk’s Seafloor
For decades, post-war documentation from Polish Maritime Salvage (Polskie Ratownictwo Okrętowe) listed the ORP Gdynia as a fully dismantled wreck cleared away for scrap metal. However, members of the Baltictech diving collective examined coordinates just a short distance from the charted salvage location and found a remarkably preserved structural fragment sitting in shallow waters. The team encountered a massive ship’s wheel mounted on its original column, accompanied by equipment bearing Polish markings that confirmed the identity of the vessel.
According to Tomasz Stachura, leader of the Baltictech group, maritime salvagers in the post-war era did not successfully lift the entire hull as the paper records claimed. Instead, crews used explosive charges to break apart the obstruction, leaving portions of the ship behind on the seabed.
“Są odkrycia ciekawe i ważne, a nieraz nawet spektakularne. Ale to, co przydarzyło się nam na koniec sezonu na dnie Zatoki Puckiej, to naprawdę niezwykła historia” noted Tomasz Stachura, describing the unexpected find at the end of the diving calendar.
Short-Lived Wartime Service Under Polish Colors
The history of the vessel dates back to the 1920s when it was built by Danziger Werft in Gdańsk as the passenger steamer SS Gdynia, commissioned by the Żegluga Polska enterprise to run tourist excursions across the Gdańsk Bay alongside its sister ship, the SS Gdańsk. As hostilities loomed, both steamers were mobilized on August 28, 1939, and pressed into service for the Polish Navy. The ORP Gdynia was converted into an unarmed base ship for the Minesweeping Cutter Division.
That military career lasted mere days. On September 2, 1939, German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers from the IV/LG 1 dive-bomber group attacked the anchored vessels in the Bay of Puck. The ORP Gdynia took direct hits and sank south of Jastarni, claiming the lives of roughly 35 to 40 crew members. The ship’s commanding officer, reserve naval lieutenant Stanisław Kosko—who also served as the director of the Maritime School in Gdynia—sustained severe wounds during the bombardment and died in a Gdynia hospital six days later.
Maritime Office Protects Wreck for Museum Recovery
Following the confirmation of the site, the Maritime Office placed the wreck under legal protection. The divers are currently coordinating with the Naval Museum in Gdynia (Muzeum Marynarki Wojennej w Gdyni) to formulate a recovery operation aimed at retrieving the steering column and its intact wheel.
Marine specialists note that lifting the artifact will require meticulous engineering. The museum has scheduled a public presentation detailing the discovery and the biography of Stanisław Kosko for Monday at 5:00 PM at its Gdynia headquarters, giving historians and the public a closer look at a vessel long thought entirely lost to the scrap yards of history.
