Scrapping of Copernicus ship underway
The scrapping of the ship Kopernik, withdrawn from service in May 2006, is underway at the Trawler Wharf of Gdańsk Shipyard SA.
Kopernik is a Polish hydrographic ship of the 861 project built at the Northern Shipyard (between 1967 and 1976 it built a total of 32 such vessels) in Gdańsk (now Remontowa Shipbuilding SA). She entered service, as part of the Navy’s hydrographic ship complex, on 20 February 1971. The ship performed hydrographic tasks for the Navy, as well as scientific research for state institutions.
As ORP Kopernik, it covered a total of 302,530.8 nautical miles during its service. These included scientific cruises to Spitsbergen, Antarctica and a cruise in the Pacific Ocean. In 2002, ORP Kopernik was converted into a submarine base. Social, storage and workshop facilities were created on the vessel, for the service of the submarines and accommodation of their crews.
In the beginning, the unit was part of the Hydrographic Security Detachment, later the Hydrographic Security Squadron from Gdynia. On 20 May 2006, the ship terminated its service, but continued to be used for training special units (Grom, Formosa). On board, Polish commandos were trained in physical combat against terrorists in maritime conditions, reports the portal Trójmiasto.pl. The unit stood at the Peace Quay in the Westerplatte Basin.
