Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Heweliusz,’ a ship’s sinking leads to a witch hunt, where the shipping company and the country’s higher officials attempt to find a person to blame for the entire incident. They zero in on the ship’s captain, and to make it look like they have done their due diligence, they appoint a group of people as the judge and jury in the case. This includes Captain Piotr Binter, a reputable captain who’d also worked on Heweliusz and turned out to be lucky not to have joined the ship’s final voyage. He is brought in, believing that he will join the efforts to blame the whole thing on the captain and be done with it. However, Binter decides to do his due diligence and get to the bottom of the truth, and that becomes his undoing. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Captain Binter’s Quest for Truth Leads to His Death
Early in his investigation into the sinking of Heweliusz, Captain Piotr Binter realizes that the state and the military are somehow involved in it. When the mayday call comes, he is surprised to find Major Ferenc there, which is a clear indication that the military is taking over the investigation. He wonders what stake they have in the truth about the ship, and this leads him down a perilous path. It isn’t surprising to him that the company tries to pin the whole thing on Captain Ulasiewicz, but he becomes intrigued by the idea of the military’s involvement in it. His suspicions deepen after he discovers that the ship was overwrought with a cargo that was loaded on it at the last minute, making it overweight, and becoming a critical factor in its sinking.
He also notes that during the rescue efforts, where divers are sent to inspect the ship several days later, they don’t seem suited up for the possibility of finding survivors and saving them. The more he is asked to stop digging around, the more adamant he becomes about solving the case. Eventually, his search leads him to examine the recording of the ship, and this is when he discovers that another ship, Kempen, was in its vicinity, which is not mentioned anywhere. This discovery is a significant piece of the puzzle, and it explains certain mind-boggling decisions made by the ship’s captain. It would also open another Pandora’s box of secrets, which could threaten to unravel the whole thing for the people who didn’t want their secrets to come out.
So, when Binter is on his way back with the evidence, in the form of the tapes, he meets a terrible accident. On first glance, it seems that his car crashing into a truck really is an accident. But then, the truck driver never comes out to check on Binter, never calls for help, and simply drives away from the location after Binter’s car catches on fire. It’s as if the driver was making sure Binter was gone for good. The timing of his crash is also highly suspicious, as without his findings, the case would likely turn out precisely as the higher powers intended. It suggests that Binter was indeed killed, most likely by Major Ferenc, to prevent him from revealing the truth and potentially putting some very powerful individuals in trouble.
The Tapes and the Truth Die With Captain Binter
When Binter discovers the recording between Heweliusz and Kempen, he realizes that the collision course they were on was the reason that Heweliusz’s captain decided to turn about. He knows that the recordings are a critical piece of evidence, so he asks for a copy. However, he is told that he can take the originals, as long as he promises to return them later. At this point, it is worth noting that the recordings have no other copies. Binter takes them with him, but on the way, he has an accident and his car catches fire. Nothing inside survives, including the recordings, which were the only evidence to prove that Captain Ulasiewicz was not as incompetent as he’s made out to be.
To his credit, Binter shares his findings with Ignacy Budzisz, the lawyer fighting on behalf of the dead captain’s family. Budzisz is happy to discover the existence of the recordings, but even he doesn’t anticipate that Binter will die so soon. Hence, the question of making a copy never arises. Unfortunately, the tapes were destroyed in the accident, so even when Budzisz goes to the source, he can’t get the recording. Furthermore, there is no written record of Kempen being near Heweliusz that night, as was already mentioned to Binter while he was examining the tapes. This means that the lawyer has no way to prove what Binter discovered, and with that, the truth is buried forever.
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