A COACH pulls up at the gates of the Hartlepool cemetery; a party of men make their way quietly along the paths to a graveside.

They stand in silent tribute; someone steps forward and puts fresh flowers in the vase which is rarely empty of blooms.

It’s like any other grave in the cemetery. The only thing setting it apart is the inscription in a foreign language.

The men are Polish seamen, joining the hundreds of visitors who each year visit the grave of a man they never knew who died half a century ago.

Money is sent for the upkeep of the grave and just months ago a Polish group in London hired a stonemason to clean and restore the headstone.

Rarely does any length of time go by without fresh flowers being laid there by a total stranger.

Beneath the Polish flag picked out in coloured stone lie the remains of a remarkable man, a captain who remained on board his mine-hit ship so his crew could escape to safety.

Captain Mamert Stankiewicz gave his life and was buried at Hartlepool’s West View Cemetery.

Fifty years on there are still pilgrimages to his grave, with parties of Polish sailors arriving from Newcastle when their ships dock there.

The crews of Polish ships docking in Hartlepool are frequent visitors and the man is venerated both at home and nowhere more so than his native land.

This autumn there are plans for a commemorative memorial service for Captain Stankiewicz, the man who gave his life for his 181 crew, including 14 Britons.

Details are being formulated in Nottingham, and the only hiccup so far is that the date coincides with the Roman Catholic celebrations of Christ the King.

The Association of Polish Merchant Navy Officers, with headquarters in London, are now looking at alternative dates.

It was on November 25 1939, in the first weeks of the second world war that the Pilsudski was hit by a mine off the Hartlepool coast.

Survivors, who were hospitalised at St Hilda’s, later told dramatic stories of how the vessel was crippled by successive explosions and of the bravery of the 58 year old Captain, who was married with a baby son.

He remained on board until the last of his crew had left the ship – and lost his life.

His heroism made the headlines and as the funeral cortege travelled through the town, crowds lined the route to St Mary’s Church and the cemetery.

Newcastle based Polish Chaplain Fr Zygmunt Jedrzejczak who will conduct the commemorative service at West View Cemetery, said he was awaiting a new date.

A book about the bravery of Captain Stankiewicz, DSO, was written by a crew member who was just 17 when tragedy struck off Hartlepool, and published some years ago.

A spokesman for the Hartlepool cemetery said each year hundreds visited the grave with coachloads of Polish seafaring men arriving from Newcastle on a regular basis.

The continued veneration for the man is a clear indication of how the story of this one man and the part he played in the war has been handed down to each new generation of sea-going men and his memory will not be allowed to die.