Heweliusz, the Polish mini-series directed by Jan Holoubek, doesn’t just tell the tale of a ship capsizing in the Baltic Sea, it tells the story of people who were failed by their own leaders. It tells us what a common man has to endure when the integrity of the judiciary is compromised. It is scary to even think that one cannot turn to the law and expect justice to prevail. But unfortunately, it is pretty much the same for every nation where the leaders try to impose their narrative on you and go to any extent to spread their propaganda. In such states, often the PR team of the government does more work than the government itself. So let’s find out what happened in the series and if the victims could ever get justice.
Spoiler Alert
How did Jan Heweliusz sink?
On 14th January 1993, when Captain Andrzej Ulasiewicz and his team were sailing from Swinoujscie, Poland, they had a hunch that their ship was overloaded. In fact, the captain asked his subordinates to not load the last three trucks since he knew that they had gone way beyond the maximum permissible capacity. Captain Ulasiewicz’s crew told him that there was a warning from the German weather forecast team, and they had stated that there was a possibility of the weather getting worse and them getting hit by a hurricane. The captain did the reasonable thing by asking for help from the Polish weather department team, led by a man named Janicki. Also, he had to load a diplomatic cargo, which was not listed earlier, and I believe he never came to know what was in it exactly. Major Artur Ferenc had personally come to deliver the package, and so the captain didn’t have the option to say no to him. So basically captain Ulasiewicz was forced to overload his ship, when if it would have been left up to his discretion, he wouldn’t have let that happen. Also, the diplomatic parcel came at the very last moment, because of which the departure had to be delayed by a couple of hours, which made all the difference in the raging sea, and I believe that it contributed to the tragedy which occurred afterwards. At sea, Captain Ulasiewicz set everything in order and then gave charge to his subordinates and went to his cabin to take a quick nap. He woke up with a jolt as it seemed that the speed of the ship had suddenly decreased. He went and asked Witold Skirmuntt what he was up to, and that’s when his junior told him that a German trawler, Kempen, had appeared out of nowhere on their course. As a result, the captain had to make an about-face, as they were on the collision course and the German ship had the right of way. These mishaps combined made Jan Heweliusz sink on that fateful day. Only 9 lives could be saved, and all the others passed away in the most horrifying manner.
Who killed Piotr Binter? And why?
Piotr Binter was the second in command to Captain Ulasiewicz, but on that fateful day he was not supposed to sail with them. When he got the news of the tragedy, he made his way to his office, and he realized that a lot of politicians and bureaucrats were present on the scene. Piotr was not naive, and it didn’t take him long to realize that the people in charge, i.e., Deputy Minister Kowalik and his superiors, wanted to make sure that the state was not blamed for whatever had happened. The Heweliusz belonged to a state-owned maritime company, and so they desperately needed a scapegoat. They knew that if they were able to prove negligence on the part of the captain and the crew, they could save their image and, moreover, keep the involvement of the military a secret. As stated earlier, Major Ferenc had personally gone to deliver the diplomatic cargo, and in fact, he had had a brief chat with Captain Ulasiewicz too. Piotr’s suspicions grew when he saw that divers were being sent underwater to retrieve the bodies of those who had died and to assess the entire situation. He didn’t understand what they would assess after so many hours had already passed. It was at that moment he realized that Major Artur was trying to retrieve the diplomatic cargo so that if an investigation was conducted in the future, no evidence could point to their involvement. In fact, later in the series we saw that the major was paying a visit to Mrs. Kaczkowska (wife of one of the truck drivers who had died in the accident), Witold (one of the crew members), and many others, just to make sure that they didn’t testify against the state. Artur told them that if they put the entire blame on the captain, then he and his bosses would make sure that they were compensated well.
During the trial, only Piotr Binter urged the witnesses to speak the truth and tell the people as to what had happened. He was the one who had told Jolanta Ulasiewicz (wife of Captain Ulasiewicz) that a man named Ignacy Budzisz was probably the only person who would fight their case and dare to go against the state. After talking with Witold, Piotr learned that there was something in the recording of the radio conversation between the Heweliusz and a German boat named Kempen. Piotr got to know that Heweliusz was on a collision course and that the captain had to make an about-face because otherwise he would have crashed into Kempen. So the fact that Captain Ulasiewicz was negligent in making an about-face, which was one of the main arguments of the biased judges that presided over the panel, didn’t hold true any longer. Piotr Binter was excited that finally the truth would be out in the open. He was himself one of the judges on the maritime chambers, but he helped out Ignacy Budzisz and Jolanta because he knew that the world needed to know the truth. Moreover, he was Captain Ulasiewicz’s colleague, and he knew that it was not fair to tarnish the reputation of a man who had done no wrong. But Piotr met with an accident on his way back, and those radio recordings could never make it to the court. Some might call it sheer bad luck that that crash happened, but in a botched-up investigation like this one, I am not allowed to believe in such coincidences. It is my personal opinion, but no prudent man can really agree that it’s really hard to believe that Piotr’s death was an accident. Sure, there is no evidence to prove that the military or the government was involved, but that does not mean that they were innocent.
Why did Witold take his own life?
Witold was one of the lucky ones who had survived the tragedy, or, if I must say, was left to deal with survivor’s guilt. Just before he got on a lifeboat, he had gone to request Captain Ulasiewicz to leave the ship and come with him. But the captain asked him to save his life and let him be. Witold knew, in that very moment, that he would never see his captain ever again. He was rescued, and he saw his own perish in the most painful manner. He was taken to a German hospital and then later escorted back to Poland with the other survivors. Witold was suffering from PTSD, and he was trying to make sense of whatever had happened. He didn’t know what to make of it, who was to be blamed, and most importantly, whether the victims would ever get closure. They would have gotten closure if their integrity wasn’t called into question, they were treated the right way, and the truth was told to the people. Though Captain Ulasiewicz and the other crew members who died in the sea were given a state funeral, soon after that, the Polish regime made sure to pin all the blame on them. In fact, Major Artur paid Witold a visit and told him the same thing he told Mrs. Kaczkowska. The commission had already tried their level best to prove that the captain was in an inebriated state, and they tried to impose the same on Witold. Witold felt pressured, and he didn’t tell the court about the German ship coming their way. He tried his level best to say that his captain was not a coward, and that he did not leave the ship till the very last moment; in fact, the captain’s body was found on the bridge, which was enough to prove that he was the last man standing. After his cross-examination, Witold felt the already existing void within him increasing even more. While leaving the court premises, he told Piotr about the radio recordings. He went back home and saw his insurance papers, which probably stated the amount his family would get in case of his accidental death. At the end of Heweliusz, Witold jumped from the deck of a ship and took his own life. The man had seen and endured too much, and after everything, he had no energy left to continue any further. He probably felt that his captain’s sacrifice was for nothing. He realized how insignificant the life of a common man was in front of people in power. Death seemed more comforting than living each day with a burden in his heart.
Did Jolanta Ulasiewicz and other victims get justice?
The European Court of Human Rights did state in its judgement that the investigation conducted by the Three Maritime Chambers was not impartial, and that they did not take certain important facts into consideration. The widows won the case against the Polish regime and were granted compensation at the end. But was that enough? Why weren’t the perpetrators, like the deputy minister Kowalik, the presiding judge of the commission, Janusz Pyzel, Major Artur, and others who tried to conceal the truth, put behind bars? Well, the simple answer is that democracy, equal rights, and justice are all a big farce. There is no fairness when the powerful and the weak are pitted against each other. It all sounds good in fiction novels and films, but in real life, the world belongs to the power-wielders, and those who are not at the top of the food chain are left at the mercy of others. During the trial, Marek Celej, one of the crew members of Heweliusz, clearly stated that the entire investigation was rigged, and the presiding judge was just not ready to hear the opinion of the victims. There was a difference between the declared weight of the cargo on the ship and the actual weight. It was because the military had to transport some diplomatic goods that were never accounted for. The forensic experts came to the stand and testified that there was no alcohol found in Captain Ulasiewicz’s body, but still the presiding judge was hellbent on proving that the captain was drunk. Janicki took the stand and told the court that he had given the green signal to Captain Ulasiewicz to set sail, yet it was considered that the captain was negligent in not assessing the weather conditions properly. The biggest blow to the state came when Mrs. Kaczkowska took the stand, and she didn’t go against the captain. Major Artur had paid her a visit and, in an almost threatening tone, told her to say that the captain was in an inebriated state, due to which the ship sank. But Mrs. Kaczkowska chose to not compromise on her integrity. She spoke the truth: she said that she wanted to blame everybody and wanted to get answers, but that didn’t mean that she was ready to lie in court. In his closing arguments, Ignacy Budzisz stated that accidents like these happened due to various contributing factors, and so even if the captain was at fault, which in this case, was not what happened, he couldn’t be said to be solely responsible for the accident. The Heweliusz accident was no less than a crime against humanity. The commission, even after hearing the testimonies of the victims and other experts, came to the conclusion that the captain’s misjudgment was to be blamed for the accident, and the shipowner, i.e., the chairman of Navica Ferries, was also found liable for whatever had happened. The series told us that a 56th victim was added to the list of those who lost their lives in the accident, as recently as 2025. A mockery was made out of the justice system, and the only solace that the sufferers could have was that history wouldn’t be kind to those who orchestrated such a travesty of justice and played a role in it.
