We all know the Titanic – The Unsinkable Ship – and its tragic history. We were reminded of its history very recently, with the latest tragedy connected to it. But did you know that Poland had its own version of the Titanic? Stay tuned to read its history 🙂
MS Piłsudski origins
MS Piłsudski was built in Italy by the CRDA yard at Monfalcone, yard number 1126, for Polskie Transatlantyckie Towarzystwo Okrętowe (“Polish Transatlantic Shipping Company Limited” or PTTO). PTTO became later on, in 1934, the Gdynia – Ameryka Linie Zeglugowe (Gdynia – America Line).
Constructed in the Italian shipyard Cantieri Riuiniti dell’Adriatico, the MS Piłsudski spanned over 160 meters long and 21.5 meters wide. At 7 decks, the ship could accommodate 773 passengers and 350 crew members. The inside of the ocean liner was just as impressive, fitted with the newest state-of-the-art technology and interiors designed by the best Polish architects, painters, and craftsmen. In addition to lounges, covered promenades, salons, and a garage for 18 passenger cars, the ship also featured the 1st swimming pool to be installed on a Polish ship.
Trading at its finest
Construction of the MS Piłsudski took 290 days in Monfalcone, Italy, along with its sister ship MS Batory. It was ready for launch on December 19, 1934.
Part of the payment for the ship was coal from Poland. In exchange for a 5-year supply of coal, the Polish government received two 14 gross tonnage ships from the Italian government – one of them was the MS Piłsudski. MS Piłsudski was launched in December 1934. Her tonnage was 14,294 tons gross, with a length of 162 metres (531 ft) and beam of 22 metres (71 ft). She was propelled by 2 diesel engines driving a pair of propellers giving a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h).
There she goes!
MS Piłsudski entered the regular service as a liner on the transatlantic route in September 1935, setting sail for a maiden voyage from Gdynia to New York. There are also contradicting reports that actually say that the Piłsudski made its first voyage on August 27th, 1935, from the port of Trieste, via Venice and Lisbon to Gdynia, though the ship’s main route was to become Gdynia-Copenhagen-Halifax-New York. You get to pick who you think was right 🙂 Bottom line: by the summer of 1939, the ship had made 38 voyages to New York.
Poland’s “Floating Embassy”
It served for a long while as Poland’s “Floating Embassy”. It made regular voyages from Gdynia to New York during the interwar period . That is also when immigration to America reached its peaks. Most of the other transatlantic liners (like SS Polonia or SS Kościuszko and SS Pułaski) were outdated and not as comfy, hip, sparkly and shiny as MS Piłsudski. Thus MS Piłsudski was in high demand – both for foreigners and for Polish people alike. Depending on the weather that it encountered, each voyage lasted 8 to 9 days. Each year it made full booked trips to its destination!
The reasons for building the 2 twin ships (Batory and Piłsudski) were driven by economics. More than two million people left Poland permanently between 1918 and 1938 and the Polish population in the United States had soared to several million.
War is here!
On the outbreak of the Second World War, many of the ships were transferred over to the Brits to be refitted as warships. In 1939, she was taken over for war service and scheduled to be converted into an armed merchant cruiser. The plans of that conversion were dropped, the ship being instead converted into a troop transport ship. In 2 months the M.S. Piłsudski was blown up by German mines on November 25th, 1939. The entire crew was successfully rescued, except for one mechanic and Captain Mamert Stankiewicz, who died during the ship’s four hour sinking.
MS Piłsudski’s demise
On November 25, 1939, at 11 p.m., the liner set sail for the first time as a military vessel. Under the command of Captain Mamert Stankiewicz, who had been the captain of the ship during the interwar years, the vessel intended to join route with a convoy to sail together to Australia. Unfortunately, the ship never made it past the North Sea.
Just a day later on November 26, 1939, the MS Piłsudski sunk near Flamborough Head. At 5:36 a.m. it was rocked by 2 explosions. Taking on water, it sank after a few hours at around 10:30 a.m.
A Captain always goes down with its ship…
Mamert Stankiewicz (22 January 1889 – 26 November 1939) was a Polish naval officer of the merchant marine, the commander of Lwów, Polonia and finally captain of the Polish ocean liner Piłsudski. On 26 November 1939 during World War II, while the captain of Pilsudski incorporated into the UK Royal Navy and converted into the ship transporting British and Polish soldiers was torpedoed by German U-boat, he, after inspecting the entire sinking ship that there were no sailors and soldiers left behind, and after rescuing sailors and soldiers from the ice-cold Northern Atlantic, he died of exhaustion. Stankiewicz’s life was immortalized by Karol Olgierd Borchardt, whose series of books on Stankiewicz became a best-seller among Polish maritime books.
In accordance with the mariner’s code, the captain remained on board until the very end, making sure that all the crew left the sinking ship. Captain Stankiewicz finally abandoned the ship with two other crew members in the last lifeboat.
Captain Mamert Stankiewicz was the last to leave the ship as he wanted to ensure that all of Piłsudski’s crew and were safe and no sailors and soldiers were left behind on the sinking ship. He rescued several sailors and soldiers and protected their safety on the lifeboats, while himself immersed in ice-cold Northern Atlantic. The sailors, soldiers, and Captain Stankiewicz were finally rescued by a British ship. He died of exhaustion and hypothermia.
By the time he died, he was completely unrecognisable as all his hair had turned completely grey.
“A Knight of the Order of Virtuti Militari, the captain of MS Piłsudski died a sailor’s death at his post,” reads the inscription on his tombstone in Hartlepool.
The Theories why it sank
While there have been numerous theories, the real cause of the sinking remains unanswered. Some theorize that the MS Piłsudski sank by a U-boat attack, though there have been no German naval records in support of this. The British authorities prefer another narrative, that the ship sunk after collision with underground mines laid by Germans. A Ukrainian nationalist, Lapuk, also claims that he sabotaged the vessel, though there is little to substantiate his claim.
The resting place of the Pilsudski is some eighteen miles off the Yorkshire coast (out from Withernsea) in thirty three metres of water at 53.45.75N & 00.45.67E. The bow and midships remains intact, though collapsing of the decks is occurring. The stern is broken off.
The real cause of the sinking of the Polish Titanic remains a mystery to this day.
Sources used in this blog post:
- PolishHistory.PL – THE MS PIŁSUDSKI – “THE POLISH TITANIC” – Author: Anna Zhou
- MS Piłsudski on Wikipedia
- Derbysulzers.com – M/S Pilsudski & M/S Batory > Gdynia-Amerika Shipping Lines Ltd > Gdynia-Amerika Linje Zeglugowe Spolka Akcyjna
- Thehistorypress.co.uk – MS Pilsudski: The largest shipwreck off the Yorkshire coast
- https://wystawy.pilsudski.org/ – SINKING OF M.S. PIŁSUDSKI
- TheFirstNews.com – The Polish Titanic: TFN explores the sinking of the MS Piłsudski – Author: STUART DOWELL
- Mamert Stankiewicz on Wikipedia
- Youtube – MS Piłsudski a Polish Tragedy
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