Diving on the wreck
The Wreck lies on its keel, slightly leaning on the starboard Side. The bow is pointing towards the small Beach and is touching the edge of the sandy slope on the way to shallow waters. Death above the bow is 14m and 20m behind the Stern. The wheelhouse room is the shallowest place of the site, measuring 10m below the sea level.
Bryza was specifically prepared to become a recreational dive site for tourists, The wreckage was cleaned off of all the interior equipment and decorations. Portholes and doors were disassembled. On the sides of the ship, plenty of holes were cut for divers to look inside the vessel.
At the front of the boat, on the top of the quarterdeck, you can see a commemorative plate with names of the last crew of Bryza and the date of their last meeting. Lucky explorers can find plenty of commemorative medals created for the ship's sinking 15th anniversary.
This divespot is a perfect location for diving drills and courses. It’s an ideal place for divers who are just beginning their underwater adventures and seasoned divers alike
Story
Bryza served in the 43rd Auxillary Ship Division in the 9th Coastal Defence Flotilla in Hel (Pl: 43 Dywizjon Pomocniczych Jednostek Pływających w 9 Flotylli Obrony Wybrzeża w Helu).
The ship's main tasks included transporting the crew and passengers from Hel to Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. In case of a war outbreak the ship was to be transformed into a sanitary vessel. K-18, project number 722 was built in the Shipyard in Gdańsk-Stogi. In order to fill the demands of the USSR army 50 ships of this model were made for the navy. Up until now some of these keelboats served in the Black Sea Fleet.
Models twin to the K18 were built in the mid 1970s. These were instructional vessels for the Navy named ORP ELEW, KADET, PODCHORĄŻY (in the name of military school students)
On January 10 1965 a Navy flag was hung on Bryza which signified the start of the ship's career.
WO Czesław Kowalski became the first captain on board.
Bryza was one of the busiest vessels of the Polish Navy. Routinely it became the very first ship for young sailors who began their service in Hel. Bryza was catering for school trips and would supply ships during training on the sea with materials and postage
After retiring from service in 2001 Bryza was put on sale and bought by a private company to be scrapped. In April 2008 the cutter was bought by Hel officials for the sum total of 85 thousand PLN.
On 12 March 2009, at 9:30 tugboat Wojtek with Bryza at it’s side departed the port in Gdańsk. Weather that day was brilliant, sea conditions were at 00B, from Hel you could see ships stationed at the Gdańsk roadstead and the cranes in the port proper. Thanks to the favorable conditions in just 2 hours the crew appeared on the Hel roadstead, hastily approaching the port.
At 11:45 Bryza docked the inner wharf by the west pier. She was welcomed by hoards of onlookers led by the city authorities. After the handover the tugboat returned home while K-18 was stormed by the wave of interested sightseers. At that moment a series of conversions for the hull to be ready to be sunk. The engines with power generators, doors, manholes and other elements which could pose potential danger to divers on-site. Some of the equipment taken out of the K-18 was transferred to the Museum of Coastal Defence to be shown as part of the exhibit.
Meanwhile underwater preparations for the seating of the ship were taking place. On the seabed were mounted temporary anchors that highlighted the future positioning of the ship parts. On both sides of the ship between the 22nd and 23rd rib 20 cm above the waterline were cut flooding holes 400 x 200mm. The holes were to induce faster, parallel sinking of the inside of the ship. This maneuver would ensure that no unnecessary air pockets would be created and would allow Bryza to achieve negative buoyancy faster, therefore limiting the “snooping” of the hull during the descent.
Until the beginning of the sinking procedure the floodgates on the sides were secured with a double layer patch attached from the inside with butterfly nuts for easy access.
Finally after months of prep time, the date of sinking was set to 19th August 2009. The weather that day was favourable, there was no wind and the surface of the sea was quiet. About 9am Ocean, a tugboat from Hel, transported the Bryza to its resting place between two marker buoys providing the positions of the bow and stern. Afterwards Ocean returned to the port to pick up the guests who were to watch the sinking up close. The procedure was overseen by the first lady Maria Kaczyńska who got the memorial medal numbered 1, the other 99 medals were hidden on Bryza to be found by divers who would be diving there in the future. At around 13:00, when the tugboat got close to “the granny” (the pet name given to Bryza by sailors) the operation began.
A team of divers - operators after detaching the securing patches and opening the bottom valves found their way onto an emergency raft. Starting at that moment Bryza began taking in water - according to the calculations 1 cm submersion was equal to 1 tonne of water inside the ship.
After about 20 minutes Bryza began quickly tilting towards the bow, the sinking was inevitable. After a short while the stern rose up above the water level revealing two propellers.
After the bow touched the bottom of the sea the stern began descending into the big blue. The show was accompanied by sounds of ship sirens, the firetrucks and the gazers of water bubbling above the wreckage. After a thorough inspections by the SCUBA team and the Maritime Hydrographers the wreck was released to the public on 1st September 2009
In just 2 years the remains became a living place for multiple sea organisms. The hull became covered with barnacles filtering sea water. While diving you can also find a lot of small perches who made the inside of the boat their home
Technical specifications
Project class: Cutter 722 constructed in Gdańsk Shipyard
Length : 28,8m
Width: 16,2m
Buoyancy: 140 ton
Drive: Two 220 kW diesel engines
Top speed: 11 knots
Interesting facts about the wreck
Memories of 18 y.o. sailor from the Bryza crew Marek Sarba:
„I spent most of the trip behind the steering wheel. Bryza was exceptionally troublesome to steer, it had a tendency for constant snooping. In order to keep it on a perfect course you had to continuously turn the wheel. The steering system wasn’t assisted by any electric mechanizm, there was a pump in the steering column which was exerting pressure in the hydraulic receiver powering the steering shaft in the stern area in the direction according to the tilt of the steering wheel.
Low temperatures made the transmission oil congeal which in turn made the steering more difficult. The Commander Boatswain Kowalski was very sensitive to the path the ship was creating on the surface, most of the sailors steering didn’t take enough caution and Kowalski would later comment using the words “You drive like a yelping bull”. I was the one steering straight and thus became the skipper on top of all the other responsibilities I had beforehand.
The first few days of 1965 passed by with us relaying the duties from the crew that picked Bryza up from the “Wisła” Shipyard. They were sailors from multiple units who were gathered to transport Bryza to the Naval Base in Hel. Bryza was docked at the inner pier, at the far end behind the Chaser Division. We, as the “true” first crew, received the ship from them with all the replacement parts and started preparing for exploitation. The first emergency rafts were wrapped and resembled tents. The outer cover of the rafts was a green waterproof tarp. Later, after 1966 the rafts were replaced by newer models packaged in white fiberglass which we painted gray, to match the ship hull. Bosun Kowalski was very demanding in terms of color and cleanliness. We were the only ship of a different color back then and now the required color is so-called “battle gray”. Bosun Kowalski made a mix with a little bit of green pigment added which resulted in a very pretty willow-green Bryza. There were a lot of jabs from the officials regarding the official rules but since we were “Kowalski’s private fleet” a lot of the orders and comments were ignored. We deserved it because of the workload we did, no other ship did as much mileage as we did. When we were docking in Gdynia, by the bow on the port side we had plenty of mooring submarines. To be exact at first we had the “M” type submarine, then in it’s place we had the pre-war ORP Sęp and afterwards a soviet-built ORP Bielik. This was also the place where we lived through multiple Naval tragedies of the time: battery fire on Bielik, steam pressure valve explosion on ORP Błyskawica, we saw how the bodies were transported from ship to car and in the end we saw the battery explosion on Sęp.
I remember the darkest story of Bryza. It was the year 1966, our ship’s electrician was retiring from service and Radek from tugboat H17 or H19 was applying for a transfer to our crew, which happened shortly after. That year I remember visiting my family home for the holidays and a few days after I returned I heard the grim news of the story that happened while I was gone.
While Bryza was visiting the Green Gate in Gdańsk, on the way back to Gdynia Radek was sent ashore to loosen the ropes. At the same time some kids were playing ball and it fell into the channel. Radek hopped onto the lower fender beam by the stern and tried to grab the ball using his other hand to push himself away from the wall. He slipped and fell face first into the water. In this moment Kowalski gave the command to start the engines and Bryza started running, Radek disappeared under the water and only for a brief moment the mooring crew could see his back in the streams of water. Search attempts by jumping into the water gave no results and Radek was found by the Navy Search and Rescue team, drowned. It was a huge tragedy for the crew, he was my age and was almost done with his service.
Radek was sleeping on the starboard side of room “B”. By the entrance to the engine room and ladder down to the right. First was my room for 4 sailors and on the other side another room for 4 sailors.
We didn't have a military ambience on Bryza, oftentimes we ate on our own. Kowalski gave us a lot of freedom which we cherished and held high regard for him. We really were “Kowalski’s private fleet”. We used to host generals: Andriej Greczko, Marshal of USSR, Admiral Zdzisław Studziński, Navy commander, Admiral Zygmunt Rudomino and many others. Oftentimes we had the Polish Marshall and his crew. We also hosted a lot of trips, a lot of interesting people and pretty girls.”
In later years Bryza was still hosting trips and passengers on the route Gdańsk - Gdynia - Hel.
Those who lived on Hel knew of the weekly “parsley trips” which was bought in Gdynia on Thursdays
Author: Karol Wójcik
Translation: Szymon Rydzewski
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