Bay of Wismar

The Bay of Wismar or more commonly Wismar Bay or Wismarbucht is a well sheltered multi-sectioned bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and is considered the south-central part of the much larger arm of the Baltic known as the Mecklenburg Bay (or Mecklenburg Bight, for its long narrow bent shape)—a long fingerlike gulf oriented to the west-southwest (WSW) from the (central) Baltic proper. Wismar bay is considered one of the finest natural harbors on the Baltic, and served as the destination for much seaborne shipping until circa the 1910s when its minimum depths of 5 meters (16 ft) became too shallow for larger more modern ships. Today, because of the shallow sheltered waters the bay is the subject of much research via underwater archeology. There are four lobe like parts of the Bay of Wismar which are themselves bays on its southern shores, each separated by a north intruding headland from the others (see maps at right) and a broad channel running northwest to southeast parallel to the line formed by the tips of the four bounding headlands. The tips of the four headlands are remarkably well aligned and very closely co-linear spanning 10.80 mi (17.38 km) northwest to southeast tip to tip along the channel along which the inlets are respectively Boltenhagen Bay, Wohlenberger Wiek, Eggers Wiek, and the inner bay. A channel, the Breitling between P