First female officer in the Maritime Search and Rescue Service

“Changes are coming. I am proud and can boast that the first female officer Ms Paulina Wawrzyniak is working on the rescue ship m/s Sztorm,” Sebastian Kluska, director of the Maritime Search and Rescue Service, announced on Twitter.

Paulina Wawrzyniak is on duty on the ship Sztorm, built in 2011, at Remontowa Shipbuilding SA in Gdansk. The SAR 3000-type vessel was built to the order of the maritime rescue service and was financed using the EU’s Infrastructure and Environment Programme 2007-2013. The construction of the vessel cost PLN 38.9 million, of which the EU contributed PLN 33.1 million.

This is the third in a series of twin vessels built for the Maritime Search and Rescue Service. The previous two – Orkan and Pasat – were built by the Naval Shipyard in Gdynia.

Paulina Wawrzyniak had previously sailed on merchant ships and oil rig support vessels and, as she reveals to Dziennik Bałtycki, she did not want to follow a career path related only to finance. “I wanted a job with passion and linked to helping others.”

Technical data of the SAR 3000:

– overall length – 36.90 m,
– hull width – 8.10 m,
– max. speed. – 24 knots,
– crew – 6 persons
– maximum number of persons (survivors) that the vessel can take at one time – 150 persons.