Sailing across the pacific II

MEMORIES FROM THE HIGH MARITIME UNIVERSITY 1969-1973

We invite you to read a series of articles that will take us back to the harsh reality of the 70's and 80's, known to most of us only from stories told by our parents or grandparents. Their author is Mr. Andrzej Buszke, a graduate of the Naval Academy in Gdynia, a sailor who worked 28 years of his life at sea. The stories are accounts and descriptions of subjective feelings of the author. The stories describe the reality of communist Poland, as well as the world, which no longer exists, seen through the eyes of an adept and then ETO (Electro-technical Officer).

Military College

The rooms of the Military College were located deep in the right wing. The training lasted five semesters (2,5 years) and ended with an exam to become an officer. Those who had already done their military service were exempt from classes. They had ‘a day off’. On that one day, dressed in military white cloth uniforms (sewn like those from Sergei Eisenstein's movie Battleship Potemkin) and black berets with an eagle without a crown, we were committed to the Armed Forces. We had to be careful when going outside the School because we could be stopped by the Internal Security Service patrols for incomplete uniforms or lack of saluting. The lectures given by the commanders took place in several specialist rooms. The submarine weapons room was interesting, a small museum with display boards, mine gadgets and a long torpedo in cross-section. In the front section of the torpedo you could lie down comfortably, and since we were notoriously sleep-deprived, it provoked competition: ‘who will be the first to take a seat there’ during a long break of 20 minutes. The rest of us had to settle for a place with a beret under our heads on the parquet floor, which we had previously painstakingly shaved and waxed. The Petty Officers conducted field exercise, on the firing range and the training ground. During one of the exercises called ‘a sailor in defense’, the petty officer ordered us to put on gas masks and plunged us into a deep pit. The petty officer ordered us to put on gas masks and he drove us into a deep pit. Then he threw a few gas grenades in there. We sat in the

At the end of the 2.5-year Military Study, we got new camo uniforms.

fumes of blue gas for a good 10 minutes. Sitting in the ditch, I heard strange noises made by my friend. Some swishing and snoring. We came out of the pit, took off the masks that covered our faces. I was horrified when I saw Zbigniew's face. Snotty, red and swollen. It turned out that he hadn't closed the flexible pipe to the absorber and he was breathing gas.

Every now and then we fell on night duty to guard the gun magazine. We were given a magazine with live ammunition for AK kbk.

From the events of the Military College, I remember the exercises on the submersible chamber, the so-called caisson. They took place at the Naval Academy in Oksywie. The exercises consisted in the fact that in pairs we were placed in the caisson together with pins, wedges and a hatch was closed. Then a steel cylinder was sunk. Through numerous holes water was dripping inside and the level rose quickly. Our task was to seal the holes as quickly as possible and stop the inflowing water. The cabin was equipped with a porthole to monitor how we were doing. It was quite an exciting ‘drill’. I remember that we plugged the gaps when the water was already coming up to our shoulders. There were also those who failed the test and were pulled out when they were in danger of drowning.

December events – 14th of December 1970

There was a Monday class going on at the College. I was sitting by the window during a lecture and I heard a sound, like the rattling of a sewing machine. Silhouettes of helicopters were drawn against the sky. They were the ones making those sounds. It was the day of the famous massacre of the shipyard workers on the wooden platform of the Gdynia Shipyard station. They came by electric train to work in the Paris Commune Shipyard. Later, I saw many times the planks of the platform frayed with bullets and the blood of the shipyard workers soaked into them...

For the next two days they did not know what to do with us. We were a school with a paramilitary structure, organizationally divided into squads, platoons and companies. It was feared that we would spontaneously join the course of the tragic December events. At night, the weapons from the weapons magazine were taken away. ‘The pedagogical authority’ stayed on the school premises 24 hours a day. Rectors, deans, heads of departments and lecturers slept in their offices, ate meals with us, which clearly gained in quality. I remember their faces when they ate our favorite black pudding for dinner.

Finally, it was decided that we had to be sent home. We marched in platoons to the Gdynia Glownia train station, we were given tickets to the place of our permanent residence. I was sent to Slupsk.

Traineeship at the Paris Commune Shipyard

After the first year we had a month's internship in the ‘Commune’ shipyard. On the same bulk carrier ‘July Manifest’, where the year before we were pulling cables. Now, smelling of freshly laid paint, it stood on the equipment coast. I spent the first few days at CMK, watching passively as technicians and engineers connected electrics and electronics to the GRT and desktops. Later, we managed to come to an ‘understanding’ with the apprenticeship supervisor guarding us, and after changing into our work clothes - we had our own lockers in the locker room - we left through a side gate to the shipyard's CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant.

We cooperated with the student worker cooperative ‘Techno-Service’ located in Gdansk Wrzeszcz and we had workbooks. I remember the annual earnings limit was 1800 PLN. An exorbitant sum for a student's pocket. As part of the contract, we cleaned the roof of the CHP plant of chimney dust. With the help of shovels a layer of soot reaching half a metre was dug out and thrown down.

The work was various, mostly physical. In the ‘Commune’ shipyard it was: cleaning tunnels in the double bottom of ships under construction and scaffolding from stripped pieces of steel; bringing in iron ballast cubes and laying them on the bottom of fishing vessels built in the shipyard; moving. The biggest job was the one I arranged for myself and four of my colleagues from the Department - on 18 borrowed workbooks (because there was a salary limit). We cleaned windows in the halls and offices of the War Shipyard in Oksywie. In one of the halls we were driven from window to window on an overhead crane by the deputy director himself ‘for something there’. On both sides of the

gantry there were ladders, buckets and a two-person team with brushes. Full automation. The deputy director made money driving us on the crane, the job was done quickly and efficiently. After the salaries were collected, we held a lavish reception for everyone who lent us their workbooks.

I remember once, after a colleague and I had unloaded coal from a 24-ton wagon - the coal was delivered in wheelbarrows on planks laid on a heap - we did not go to class in the morning after working through the night.

I once did measurements and sketches for a designed lightning protection system on the roof of a vinegar and mustard factory. As time went on, with each passing year and even month, the rigor of discipline waned. I remember the Maritime School had three six-wheel lifeboats. They were used for inter-departmental races to the Redlowo Cape and back. During the second year, in May and June, we would leave the lectures and exercises ‘to row’. We would swim out of the yacht basin and after a short swim in the very cold water we would paddle vigorously to warm up. The number of bedroom occupants decreased as new rooms arrived. From 12 to 10, 8 - in the last IX semester, after moving to the new dorms on Sedzickiego Street, I lived in a triple room.

School strike

During the second year, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Electronics organized a hunger strike based on voluntary solidarity in giving away food ration cards and sending a letter to the Ministry of Shipping, the Municipal Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, the authorities of the University and the Faculty. ‘The starting point’ was the threat of expulsion of one student for a trivial reason. There were several demands, mainly social ones, but there were also personal accusations against people from the Faculty Council, referring to cases of degrading treatment and insulting our dignity. There were certainly some other demands, regarding the structure of the university itself.

Demands from the social sphere included: improving the quality of meals, hot water in taps, replacing moldy tiles in washrooms and showers. Only the students of Gdynia Maritime University took part in the strike action. Third-year students of the State Maritime School, who were studying at the same time with us, were ‘leaving’ and did not want to expose themselves. We were suspended in uncertainty for several days. The matter became politically salacious case and there were rumored proposals to dissolve the ‘rebellious’ class.

The strike was successful. A few people left, the food improved, the tiles were replaced. I don't remember whether there was hot water in the washroom taps in the morning. Nobody was expelled.

The authors of the protest were searched for. Fonts were examined to find the typewriter that was used to edit the text of the petition. As far as I know, nothing was officially found. It was located on the first floor by the lobby in the west wing. I think the inauguration was in 1971? It was a much-needed place for social meetings with relatives. Later dance parties were held there. Young Maryla Rodowicz with her inseparable guitarists came to perform. The dance evenings attracted many girls. Couples formed. Some became married.

We had a very interesting and touching meeting with Leonid Teliga, a great sailor, who sailed around the globe on a tiny yacht ‘Opty’ with Bermuda rigging. We asked him for autographs. The traveler who fulfilled his passions was already very ill. It was one of His last meetings. He died half a year later.

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