Wrecks in the vicinity of Łeba are a very popular destination among wreck divers. No wonder! The shallow depth, good visibility and interesting stories of wrecks attract both recreational and technical divers.
Our goal in September 2025 was to prepare three-dimensional models of wrecks lying in the vicinity of Łeba at depths of 15 to 30 m. During four diving days, we managed to scan four wrecks.
The diving conditions were just perfect – good visibility, reaching up to 15m, water temperature 15 degrees, no or moderate waves. You can see the results of our dives below.
On the basis of the collected photographic material, we managed to prepare four three-dimensional models of the wrecks on which we dived. These are:
A catalogue with all models built during the Łeba Wrecks project in Three-Dimension can be found here.
Betonowiec is the common name of the wreck, located north of Łeba at a depth of 27 m.
The ship in question was built in 1905 in Tonning, Germany. It was a commercial unit measuring 49.02 m long and 8.30 m wide. He had 3.5 m of draft. It was powered by a steam engine, and a single screw allowed it to reach a speed of 8 knots, i.e. almost 15 km/h.
The first name of this vessel was Itzehoe , after the city where its first shipowner was based. During its service, the ship changed owners and names several times. The last official name of the ship is Lebbin II.
The cause of its sinking was hitting a Russian mine on December 16, 1914.
Why do we call him Betonowiec (Conrecte Ship)? On his last voyage, Lebbin sailed to Königsberg with a cargo of cement in barrels. After sinking, the cement hardened. The barrels fell apart and now we can admire two huge piles of concrete cylinders on the wreck.
Today, the wreck rests at a depth of 27 m.
The minimum depth of the wreck is about 20m.
The wreck of the Betonowiec is heavily damaged. The sides and superstructures completely fell apart, creating a mosaic of frames and boards overgrown with metal sheets at the bottom. Despite this, we can still observe several characteristic elements on the wreck. The bow part is still in pretty good condition. On the left side of the hull we have an anchor still hanging in the chute. Admittedly, at first glance it is difficult to pay attention to it because a large part of the deck rests on it, which was probably torn off during the sinking. Then we have piles of hardened cement. Here and there we can come across elements of deck equipment.
Sailing further towards the stern, we come across steam boilers.
The Lebbin was equipped with a main boiler and an auxiliary boiler. Right behind the boilers is a triple expansion steam engine. From this place, a few kicks with the fins are enough to find ourselves at the stern, where we come across a preserved rudder fin and propeller.
In order to build a three-dimensional model of such an underwater object, you need to take a very large number of overlapping photos.
We used several GoPro cameras in timelapse mode for scanning, so the photos were taken automatically, and we just slowly swam with the cameras, pointing them at the wrecksite so that we could catch each element from at least a few sides.
In total, we took 10500 photos, which were used to prepare a 3D model.
The wreck of a German plane from the Second World War.
The wreck of a side-wheel steamer from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Did you like this initiative? We need people like you! Contact us and join the planned projects!
Bartek Trzcinski, Kasia Zasada-Močko, Piotr Nowak, Paweł Burdzy, Michał Ryśniak, Artem Kovalevskii, Luis Alvarez, Bartosz Suchomski, Isadora Abuter Grebe, Kiki Chen.
Bartek Trzcinski