View source for MS Piłsudski

{{short description| Polish passenger ship sunk off the Yorkshire coast }}
{{About|the Polish passenger ship||Pilsudski (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{More footnotes|date=January 2016}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin |infobox caption=}} <!-- commercial vessels --><!-- caption: yes, nodab, or <caption text> -->
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = MS Piłsudski, Nowy Jork.jpg
| Ship caption = MS ''Piłsudski'' at New York
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country = Poland
| Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Poland|naval}}
| Ship name = ''Pilsudski''
| Ship namesake = [[Józef Piłsudski]]
| Ship owner = PTTO
| Ship operator = 
| Ship registry = {{flagicon|Poland|civil}} [[Gdynia]], [[Poland]]
| Ship route = 
| Ship ordered = 
| Ship builder = [[Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico|CRDA]], [[Monfalcone]]
| Ship original cost = 
| Ship yard number = 1126
| Ship way number = 
| Ship laid down = 
| Ship launched = 19 December 1934
| Ship completed = 
| Ship christened = 
| Ship acquired = 
| Ship maiden voyage = 15 September 1935
| Ship in service = 
| Ship out of service = 1939
| Ship identification = [[Maritime call sign|Call sign]]: SPED
| Ship fate = Sunk, 26 November 1939
| Ship notes = 
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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| Header caption = 
| Ship class = 
| Ship type = [[Ocean liner]]
| Ship tonnage = {{GRT|14294}}
| Ship displacement = 
| Ship length = {{cvt|162|m|ftin}}
| Ship beam = {{cvt|21.6|m|ftin}}
| Ship height = 
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| Ship power = 
| Ship propulsion = Two diesel engines
| Ship speed = {{convert|18|kn|lk=in}}
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| Ship notes = 
}}
|}
'''MS ''Piłsudski''''' (later renamed '''ORP ''Piłsudski''''') was a medium-size [[ocean liner]] of the [[Polish Merchant Marine]], named for Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]], a national hero of Poland. While transporting troops, the ship was sunk off the coast of England during World War II.

==History==
She 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), which in 1934 became Gdynia – Ameryka Linie Zeglugowe (Gdynia – America Line), with part of the payment being shipments of coal from Poland. The ship was named for Polish national hero, [[Józef Piłsudski]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/the-polish-titanic-tfn-explores-the-sinking-of-the-ms-pilsudski-32419 |title=The Polish Titanic: TFN explores the sinking of the MS Piłsudski |access-date= 19 August 2022}}</ref> Launched in December 1934, her tonnage was 14,294 tons gross, with a length of {{convert|162|m|ft}} and beam of {{convert|71|ft|m|disp=flip}}. She was propelled by two diesel engines driving a pair of propellers giving a speed of {{convert|18|kn|km/h}}. She was the older [[sister ship]] to Poland's most famous ocean liner, {{ship|MS|Batory}}. The ''Pilsudski''{{'}}s first skipper was Master Mariner [[Mamert Stankiewicz]].

She entered the regular service as a liner on the trans-Atlantic route in September 1935, setting sail for a maiden voyage from Gdynia to New York. As a liner, she was very badly damaged by her first ocean storm. {{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

=== War service and wreck ===
In 1939, she was taken over for war service by the [[Polish Navy]] and scheduled to be converted into an [[armed merchant cruiser]]. The plans of that conversion were dropped, the ship being instead converted into a [[troopship|troop transport ship]]. During her first wartime voyage on 26 November 1939 sailing out of [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]], she struck a [[naval mine]] (most likely) or was torpedoed (lack of confirmation in German sources). {{Speculation inline|date=date=March 2025|text=Abandoned too soon by her crew, quite capable of being saved}}, she sank off the [[Humber]]. {{Full citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Mamert Stankiewicz remained on the ship until all his crew had safely escaped. He later died of exhaustion and hypothermia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-08-03 |title=Giant Shipwreck Discovered At The Sea Bottom A Few Miles Off The UK Coast |url=https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/giant-shipwreck-discovered-at-the-sea-bottom-a-few-miles-off-the-uk-coast/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Marine Insight |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Legacy ===
The wreck is located at {{coord|53|45.75|N|0|45.67|E|display=inline,title}} in {{convert|34|m|ft}}. The remains of MS Piłsudski were undiscovered for 40 years. In 2008 Polish divers visited the wreck site to search for answers as to why the ship was sunk.<ref name=":0" />

In the novel ''Eccentrics'', written by W. Kowalewski and published by Marginesy-Publishers in 2015, the main character of the novel - a Polish swingman and dancer born in Lemberg, Fabian Apanowicz, takes part in the last peacetime voyage of the ''Pilsudski'' as a member of the ship's band, and after his return to Poland after the war, he tells the story of the unfinished voyage to his six years younger sister Wanda, a dentist in Ciechocinek (cf. W. Kowalewski, Excentrycy/Eccentrics, Marginesy Warsaw 2015, pp.&nbsp;36–43).

In 2023, the Polish government released ‘MS Piłsudski – the underwater mission’ a film using audio visual technology to recreate the ship in its heydey and tell the story of the ship's demise.<ref>{{Cite web |last=sm |date=2023-04-02 |title=The premiere of the film about MS Piłsudski ocean liner |url=https://polanddaily24.com/the-premiere-of-the-film-about-ms-pilsudski-ocean-liner/world-news/21317 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=PolandDaily24.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[List of shipwrecks in November 1939]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.derbysulzers.com/shipbatory.html History of M/S Pilsudski and M/S Batory]
*Official report of the sinking  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012150834/http://stefanbatoryoceanliner.homestead.com/PilsudskiReport.html |date=12 October 2008}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080820071951/http://www.bsac14.org.uk/pilsudski.htm Diver report]
*[https://polishhistory.pl/the-ms-pilsudski-the-polish-titanic/ The MS Piłsudski - "The Polish Titanic" What Happened with the pride of the Polish Navy?]
* ''Cruising Ships'', W.H. Mitchell and L. A Sawyer, Doubleday, 1967
* ''Wielka Ksiega Statkow Polskich'', vol 2, J. Micinski, M. Twardowski, B. Huras.

{{Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico}}{{November 1939 shipwrecks}}{{Recreational dive sites|wresit}}
{{Gdynia America Line}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilsudski}}
[[Category:Passenger ships of Poland]]
[[Category:Ocean liners]]
[[Category:Wreck diving sites in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ships built in Monfalcone]]
[[Category:Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico]]
[[Category:1934 ships]]
[[Category:Ships of the Gdynia-America Line]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the North Sea]]