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M-S Jan Heweliusz
Cleaned up debris: 0 lb
Baltic Sea, Sweden
Booked 0 Planned 0
56°F
60°F
56°F
M-S Jan Heweliusz information M-S Jan Heweliusz's wall
BRIEFING MAPTYPE OF DIVE
 
INFORMATION
Location Baltic Sea, Sweden
Water type Salt water
Average current Not available
Average logged depth Not available meters (Not available feet)
Maximum logged depth Not available meters (Not available feet)
DESCRIPTION
DiversHotSpot AB2012-01-11Report
M/S Jan Heweliusz (also spelled Jan Hevelius or Jan Havereliutz) was starting on it's journey at “Trosvik verksted” in Brevik, Norway where it was built in 1977. In july the same year it took it's maiden voyage across the waters when she was delivered to the Polish buyer “Polskie Linie Oceancizne” in Gdynia, Poland. As her sister ship Mikolaj Kopernik she was going to become a transport ship between the seaport in the city of Swinoujscie located in the extreme north-west of Poland, and the ferry port in the city of Ystad in the southern part of Sweden.
M/S Jan Heweliusz's purpose was to ship motor traffic as lorries, trucks and trains between the two countries. She had no focus on transporting people and only had 36 small cabins for 36 passangers.
The name she had gotten from the Polish councilor, mayor and astronomer Johannes Hevelius(1611-1687). He was the discoverer of four comets, observed sunspots on the surface of the sun, studied the different phases of the planet Saturn, but was most famous for his observations of the moon. He had let built his own observatory and released his book Selenographia(1647) about the moon which contained detailed pictures of it's surface. In memory of his work a crater on the moon was named after him, and now also the ship.

One month after the maiden voyage an accident happened at the port of Swinoujscie. There she came to close to the harbor and ripped up a 10 meter long hole in the hull which had to be mended.
In March the year after almost fell over when it was loaded to heavily on one side. Luckily it was possible to pull her upright again.
In December 1981 the slipway got stuck when landing in the harbor.
Four months later in March 1982 her engines stopped working out in the middle of the sea.
Five months later, the 19th of August 1982 she fell over a second time when loading cement on board. After trying to pull her upright again she fell once more with the commando bridge into the dock. 3 crew members were hurt in the process. A few days later the ship had been pulled up again and was towed to a shipyard where 3 months of repairs awaited.
Two days later she crashed in to the harbor in Ystad and ripped up four small holes in the hull.
Two months later, in January two semi-trucks rolled over and the crew had to fight hard for the ship to stay upright.
Three and a half year later, the 8th of September in 1986 a semi-truck caught on fire, which spread to five other trucks on board. 23 passengers and some of the crew sought safety in the lifeboats while the fire was put out. Once again the ship had to seek a shipwreck for reparation.
In January 1987 she collided with a customs ship in Ystad and had to go through even more repairs.
By this time the ship M/S Jan Heweliusz the ship would have, if it wasn't for all the repairs have looked more like a surface of crater then where the other Jan Heweliusz was on the moon, but soon the ship would not bump into anything anymore.
Six years later, the 13th of January 1993 M/S Jan Heweliusz left the harbor in Swinoujscie at 8pm. There were 34 passengers and 29 crew members, 29 semi-trucks and 10 wagons on board. During the night she was caught in a storm, and after hours of maydays and attempts to save the ship she disappear from all radar around 5:30am. 5:50am she appeared again but upside down. For several days she lay floating upside down and sank a week later to the bottom of the ocean at 26 meters. 54 people died during the accident and 14 of them have never been found.

Today M/S Jan Heweliusz is a popular wreck for divers on it's 10-26 meters. Because of it's shallow depth it's marked out with a permanent buoy(to avoid accidents) and is easy to find. When the waters clear the silhouette of the wreck can be seen from the surface.

Written by Fredrik Mattsson for DiversHotSpot.