Dive Team to Investigate Wreck of Sunken Nazi Steamer

Last year , a team of Polish loon discovered the wreck of the Nazi steamer Karlsruhe . The wreck was loaded with china , vehicle , and other wartime cargo , and the dive squad is set to return in the coming days to further investigate . In particular , they ’re interested in some unopened crates that went down with the ship . The squad may even institute some item to the surface .

The shipwreck was establish in September 2020 by a team from Baltictech , a diving fellowship seek several shipwreck of vessels involve in Operation Hannibal , one of the big ocean evacuations in history that saw the Nazis flee Soviet forces on the Eastern Front . The Baltictech team took photograph of some of the Karlsruhe wreck when it was discovered . Somewhat bewilderingly , the Karlsruhe was one of two Nazi vessel of that name that sink during World War II . The Karlsruhe that Baltictech is investigating is a steamer obtain some 40 miles off the coast of Poland ; the other Karlsruhe was a Nazi warship thatsunk off Norway in 1940 . Both shipwrecks were chance last fall .

The steamer was one of the last Nazi vessel to impart the Prussian metropolis of Königsberg ( now Kaliningrad , Russia ) as Soviet forces retake the city in April 1945 . Besides its 360 tons of cargo , the ship carry 150 soldier from an elite Nazi regiment and about 900 civilian . Two days after the ship left Königsberg , it was sink by Soviet aircraft , leave 113 subsister , according to the Associated Press . “ The Karlsruhe differed from the other ships regard in the operation in that it primarily carry cargo , the refugee boarded at the last minute , ” said Tomasz Zwara , a diver with the Baltictech squad , in a press release emailed to Gizmodo .

A rusted vehicle in the wreck of the Karlsruhe.

A rusted vehicle in the wreck of the Karlsruhe.Photo: TOMASZ STACHURA / SANTI

Now nearly 300 feet submerged , the shipwreck is tough to dive on . drop about half an hour at such depths ask two and a one-half hours of decompression . Because the ship was one of the last to leave the realm , the Baltictech team thinks it may be laden with valuables the Nazis go for to hold onto as they flee . That ’s why the unopened crates aboard the wreck are of such interest to the squad .

“ We will plunge and check what ’s in the crates without destroying them , ” said Tomasz Stachura , the chair of the SANTI diving event company and a technical diver who previously visited the wreck , in an email to Gizmodo . The dive team may bring objective to airfoil if they deem them worthy of further review and will have a representative from the National Maritime Museum in Gdansk , Poland aboard to apprise .

The crates , unopened for three - quarter of a century , could easily take unremarkable items of daily life in Königsberg . But they also could contain valuable looted by the Nazis during the warfare . Stachura hopes that the shipwreck may hold the solution to what happened to the Amber Room , a luxurious wainscoted room in St. Petersburg ’s Catherine Palace that was looted by the Nazis and brought to Königsberg , where it fly during the war .

Some of the intriguing crate debris found on the shipwreck.

Some of the intriguing crate debris found on the shipwreck.Photo: TOMASZ STACHURA / SANTI

“ We do not have any hard evidence that the Amber Room is there [ in the wreck ] , but nobody has any hard evidence that Amber Room is elsewhere , ” Stachuratold Atlas Obscura last class . “ The truth is that the Germans wanting to beam something valuable to the Mae West could only do it by means of Karlsruhe , as this was their last chance [ to get it out of Prussia ] . ”

While a treasure hunt may prove vain , the upcoming diva will give the team a good discernment of what ’s left of the Karlsruhe and what it carried on its concluding voyage to the bottom of the Baltic Sea .

More : Here ’s What Protects Shipwrecks From Looters and cab

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