Never before or since have the aspirations and fate of a nation been so dramatically symbolised by a single ocean liner as those of pre-war Poland by the M/S Piłsudski.
The Poland which re-emerged battered and torn onto the post First World War I map of Europe after a hundred years of partition by the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires had only very limited access to the sea. A narrow and highly contentious strip of land known as “The Polish Corridor” separated Germany proper from its East Prussian territory in order to allow Polish access to the Baltic Sea.
Limited though it was this access was of enormous political, economic and emotional importance to the Poles and was even celebrated by a ceremony to “marry” Poland to the sea. At the climax of the ceremony veteran General Józef Haller rode, with due solemnity, into the surf and, to a fanfare of cavalry trumpets, tossed a gold wedding ring into the restless waves of Poland’s betrothed!
In theory Polish maritime access to the Baltic was to be by the Free City of Danzig (now the Polish city of Gdańsk – the birthplace of the Solidarity movement), but Danzig was in reality effectively controlled by a German administration, totally set upon throttling Polish trade.
The Polish answer was a truly audacious project to build their own major port, under their own control in the Polish corridor, by transforming the hitherto tiny coastal village of Gdynia. Initially derided by Poland’s neighbours, the project, energetically driven forward by Polish Finance Minister, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, proved to be the greatest triumph of interwar Poland. By 1933, boasting the biggest goods turnover of all the ports in the Baltic Sea, Gdynia had eclipsed Danzig as the major Baltic port!
Early on, the architects of the Gdynia project had realised that there was little point in building a prestige port, designed in part to put Poland well and truly on the World maritime map, if Poland lacked those essential prerequisites of maritime prestige of the period—modern top rate trans-Atlantic liners!
The existing and much beloved “Polonia”, “Pulaski” and “Kosciuszko” had all been built by Barclay & Curie of Glasgow in 1910, 1912 and 1915 respectively and had not only seen previous service under other names and owners but had by the early 1930s a rather antiquated appearance.
The problem in obtaining the much needed and desired new ocean liners was that, to put it bluntly, there was simply no available Polish funding for such a project. The solution was, to say the least, original.
On 29th November 1933 the Gdynia-America Line’s Managing Director, Aleksander Leszczynski, signed a contract with Italian shipyards for “two identical steel twin screw Motorships for passengers and cargo” designed to comply with the Rules of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping “for the highest class of that institution” complete with “ice strengthening”.
The matter of payment was diplomatically detailed. The Poles were to pay 30,910,000 lire per ship payment being due in gold Italian lire in a series of instalments. However, under the terms of the self-same contract the Italian State Railways were to purchase 60,000,000 lira worth of Polish coal over a four-year period. Effectively, under the face saving terminology of the contract, the Poles were actually paying in coal! In addition, priority had to be given to Polish suppliers.
The two new ships were to be twin stackers built at the Italian Triest-Monfalcone Cantieri Riuniti del’ Adriatico Shipyard. With a 14,294 gross tonnage, a length of 498.8 ft and a beam width of 70.8 ft, twin screws, single acting eighteen cylinder oil engines, 2,516 horsepower and a speed of 17 knots they were designed to carry 796 passengers. The crew of approximately 303 reassuringly included one priest and five bartenders!
They were to become known as the “International Ships” as the materials and equipment came from some dozen different countries. Kitchen utensils, kettles, fire fighting gear and gyrocompasses came from the USA; the anchors, laundry machines and refrigerating plants were from Denmark; Czechoslovakia provided the iron used in the hull; England contributed the steering gear, boilers and propellers; the bow and stern portions were delivered by Hungary, sheets of plating came from Austria and the fuel pumps and engine parts from Switzerland. In the light of later events it was ironic that the lifeboat davits were of German manufacture, but it seems somehow more appropriate that Scotland supplied the distilling plants.
Although built abroad the interior decorations, fittings and furnishings were Polish designed and produced to create a very deliberate and distinctively Polish character and atmosphere. Only the very finest Polish artists and craftsmen were involved. Some 80 Polish artists and craftsmen contributed under the supervision of Tadeusz Pruszkowski, Director of the Polish Academy of Arts.
These ships were fully intended to promote and market Poland abroad. Polish cuisine also added to the very distinctive Polish ethos aboard ship.
M/S Piłsudski was launched on December 19th 1934 and the M/S Batory followed shortly thereafter. The single stackers ‘Sobieski’ and ‘Chrobry’ were then launched shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In the last days of peace there was perhaps talk of a further and much larger “great Piłsudski” which came to nothing with the outbreak of war.
The naming of the Batory and the Piłsudski was of considerable importance.
M/S Batory was named after the late 16th Century Polish King, Stefan Batory, who had humbled the Russians on the battlefield, captured the Kremlin and occupied Moscow.
The naming of the first of the pair after Józef Klemens Piłsudski was of far greater significance. In turn, Socialist Revolutionary, First World War Military Leader, securer of Polish independence, victor of the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-20, Marshal of Poland and dominant force in Polish politics and government, Piłsudski had come to embody, in the minds of his adherents and a very large proportion of the Polish population, the patriotic aspirations of both nation and state. In order to avoid even the slightest risk of any misunderstanding the bow of the ship was decorated with a huge representation of the badge of Piłsudski’s legendary World War I First Brigade from which flowed on either side the distinctive zigzag pattern seen on the collars of Poland’s Generals. This ship was to symbolise Polish power, prestige and national pride and to take that image overseas—particularly to the United States of America.
The launching was a matter of huge celebration in Poland, dominating the Polish media of the day. Special postage stamps depicted M/S Piłsudski at full speed slicing effortlessly through heavy seas, her funnels belching great clouds of smoke - an interesting example of artistic license considering that the Piłsudski was a motor ship!
In her brief career of only just under five years at least four contemporary bronze medallions were struck bearing her image. One marks her first trip from Italy to Poland, another her maiden Atlantic crossing and a third the 15th Anniversary of the founding of her homeport of Gdynia. The largest and finest commemorates the actual launching.
Again, given the sad brevity of her career, the number of brochures, posters, placards and postcards depicting M/S Piłsudski produced by the Gdynia-America Line is quite extraordinary. Numerous black and white and colour postcards depict the exterior of the ship from every possible angle sometimes with the added bonus of a portrait of her captain. One series, bound and perforated, depicts the interior in detail including the engine room and commemorates the dedication of the ship’s flag.
There were even special Christmas and Easter cards depicting the ship in more or less suitable seasonal settings.
Most evocative of all is perhaps a full colour postcard showing M/S Piłsudski slicing through the ocean at high speed. High above the ship the clouds form the austere but approving face of the, by then recently deceased, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, himself apparently bestowing his personal blessings upon the ship from Heaven itself!
In case the copious company efforts were inadequate, Ambassador Potocki set about producing yet more postcards carrying his portrait, as well as a picture of the ship, with a special message in Polish and in his own handwriting commending the vessel to the large Polish community in the United States.
M/S Piłsudski had sailed on her maiden voyage from Gdynia to New York on September 15th 1935. The trip was smooth and the weather was excellent. The welcome in New York was extremely enthusiastic. The Polish community were undoubtedly fully mobilised for the occasion! In surviving photographs Captain Stankiewicz looks almost overwhelmed surrounded by the leading ladies of the Polish Community at a reception attended by Mayor La Guardia of New York.
The Poles could scarcely contain their glee at the fact that the welcome for M/S Piłsudski in scale and intensity totally eclipsed the enthusiastic welcome given to the MS Normandie just a few months earlier.
The regular Captain of the Piłsudski was Mamert Stankiewicz, a legendary Polish sailor and a veteran of the old, tall sailing ships, renown for having previously skippered that most evocative of tall ships, the Lwów, then serving as training ship in the young Polish Navy.
On one trip the Lwów became becalmed for a lengthy period in the mid-Atlantic doldrums. Supplies of food were soon very nearly exhausted. One evening Stankiewicz arrived in the Midshipmen’s Mess — a totally unheard of occurrence. Without explanation or introduction he sat down and started reading aloud from an ancient and battered volume. The startled Midshipmen suddenly realised that he was reading an account by a Sixteenth Century Spanish Captain describing how his crew had been forced to resort to cannibalism when trapped at length in these self same doldrums. Having completed his chosen reading Stankiewicz arose and left without further comment or explanation, leaving behind him an understandably worried set of young Polish Midshipmen. Fortunately, on the morning of the following day a strong wind arose. Nothing more was ever said about the event.
In his mid-forties, at the time of the maiden voyage of M/S Piłsudski, Stankiewicz was at the height of his professional powers. However, his health was poor and he suffered from a heart condition which created considerable problems. In November 1935 Captain Eustacy Borkowski briefly took his place to take M/S Piłsudski across the Atlantic. During a later and far more protracted period of absence, once again due to ill health, Stankiewicz’s place was taken by Captain Zdenko Knoetgen.
Poland at that time possessed a small but surprisingly dedicated and very high quality merchant marine. Polish mariners were driven both by the camaraderie of the sea and by an intensely patriotic desire to demonstrate that although Poland’s was a small and young merchant marine, the Poles were as good as anyone on the high seas. They were well aware that they were flying the Polish flag abroad and were therefore a visible symbol of the re-born Poland to foreigners. Stankiewicz was the embodiment of this ethos—experienced, efficient and extremely demanding.
The second voyage, in far worse weather, revealed considerable weaknesses. The ship failed to maintain adequate stability and balance and part of the deck structure was found to be inadequate in the face of severe ocean conditions. The damage was considerable and extensive modifications and redesign followed.
Each round trip, Gdynia - New York - Gdynia, took about three and a half weeks. There were generally about ten round trips per year with additional cruises to the Norwegian fiords in Summer and the Caribbean during the Christmas and New Year period. There was always an almost full complement of passengers.
A ten day cruise from New York departing at 3.00pm on 24th December 1936—taking in Bermuda, Kingston and Havana—and returning at 6.00pm on 3rd January 1937 cost a mere $110 per head in tourist class, including Christmas and New Year festivities!
There was accommodation on M/S Piłsudski for 796 passengers (46 first class, 370 tourist class and 400 third class). The marketing of the ship, as befitted a national prestige project, was extremely clever and adroit.
In the letters and diaries of her passengers they repeatedly note that tourist class on the Piłsudski is as good as first class on other ships. Furthermore, what was marketed as First Class was perceived as more than First Class by her passengers. These perceptions were not accidental. Clearly there was a deliberate marketing strategy to stimulate customer satisfaction and so both promote bookings and the reputation of the vessel by word of mouth. This was not just about marketing M/S Piłsudski it was also about marketing Poland.
There was also no doubt about the target of the advertising the brochure proclaiming:-
“The social atmosphere that pervades the tourist class quarters of the Polish Line ships appeals to American passengers because it is one of true democracy. A spirit of welcome that is warm and heartfelt, a wholesome air of equality, a refreshing feeling of emancipation gives Americans the sense of carrying the ideals of their own land across the ocean with them.”
The same brochures also proclaimed “full freedom of the ship” declaring:-
“This “freedom of the ship” aboard these beautifully appointed liners PIŁSUDSKI and BATORY means that the tourist passenger can use every available accommodation aboard. He will find no doors marked “No Admittance” to bar his strolls and explorations. Everything that is best on the ship is his, without exception or qualification. And he doesn’t have to envy anyone or feel inferior to anybody…”
It has to be remembered that these brochures were being produced just 23 years after the sinking of the Titanic and that stories of locked doors leading to the deaths of non First Class passengers in that earlier tragedy were still current in popular memory.
Cabins were relatively compact and modest by modern standard although well designed and equipped. The style now seems utilitarian rather than luxurious but was perfectly acceptable to the traveller of the 1930s who would have approved of the straightforward modernity and simplicity of design which was in tune with the times. First Class and Tourist Class cabins were, of course, en suite. All rooms boasted hot and cold running water.
As well as a full range of salons, restaurants, cafe and bars onboard facilities included an indoor swimming pool where drinks could be served at the pool, tennis courts, a gym, where fencing was among the available attractions, a well equipped children’s play room, a gift shop, a small library which in photographs is strangely devoid of books, a ladies only salon, a room to room telephone service, sound motion pictures, a photographic darkroom, laundry services, barber shop and ladies beauty parlour.
The main salon featured a white grand piano and a very large, reputedly solid gold, statuette. Other artistic exhibits included a large portrait of Marshal Piłsudski in full regalia. The elevator, complete with elevator boy in pillbox hat, short waistcoat and stripe-seamed trousers and black polished shoes features in many of the brochures presumably as an indicator of the ship’s startling modernity. Deck sports were popular with the young and active while others, extremely well wrapped up if holiday shots are to be believed, took to deck chairs.
Passengers’ cars could be carried across the Atlantic as, for a much smaller fee of a few dollars, could cats and dogs. Any quantity of birds could also be carried for an even more modest fee although parrots must have been a nuisance as their presence required the signing of declarations by both Captain and Ship’s Doctor upon entry to many ports.
Menus, printed in Polish and English, often included Polish dishes and meal times were designed to cater both for American tastes for an earlier lunch and the Polish fashion for a mid afternoon main meal. Grilled kiełbasa (Polish sausage) with fried onion was a lunchtime favourite with Polish travellers.
Diners aboard M/S Piłsudski on the evening of 5th June 1938 sipped tomato juice or grapefruit cocktails while awaiting Homard (Lobster) Bellvue. This was followed by Consomme with Bouchees or Celery Crčme, Le Grand Pierre. Then came Fried Sole Fillet with Mousseline Sauce to be followed by Beef Tenderloin, Frascatti or Roast Pheasant, Bruxelloise served with Salad Ninon, Bilberry and Potato Parisienne. For vegetarians there was a rather less inspiring Cauliflower Flamande. There followed Tart Stephana or Bombe Rio de Janeiro. The meal concluded with Fruit and Coffee.
As always an alternative Kosher Menu was available for Jewish passengers.
Surviving photographs of happy diners, often in party hats, testify to the quality of both food and drink.
The ship boasted both Concert and Dance Orchestras and “professional theatrical entertainment”.
A Concert at 9.30pm on the evening of 9th June 1937 started with the overture from ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ and concluded with the March ‘Florentine’ performed by the M/S Piłsudski Concert Orchestra taking in along the way baritone, cello and violin solos from Polish, Latvian and American artistes. There were also “Songs & Dances” and, perhaps a little incongruously, Maria Virginia Ross of “Manhattan’s Nite Life” appearing “in original Spanish Dance”.
“Bridge contests” would have captured the interest of Poles and Americans alike. The middle classes of both nations were equally obsessed with the game throughout the 1930s. Any Polish Army Officers aboard would particularly have relished the opportunity to indulge in a favourite off duty pastime!
The impact of the ship upon many of its passengers is indicated by the number who went to considerable lengths to preserve and cherish little mementos of their voyages.
A pretty and pert little blond American girl was given a beautifully elaborate leather bound autograph album to take with her. Travelling from America to Denmark on the Piłsudski and returning on the Batory she collected autographs and inscriptions from both Captains, most senior officers, many distinguished passengers and even the elevator boy on the Piłsudski. A few years later, back home in Philadelphia, she was to sadly tuck inside the cover an American press cutting detailing the sinking of the Piłsudski and the death of Captain Stankiewicz.
A handsome young man of Polish-American origin kept his shipboard photo (well-oiled hair, dark blazer, white open necked shirt and cravat, white flannels, white loafers) inside a souvenir dinner menu. Along with it he kept agonised letters in broken English from relatives in Poland terrified by the events of the Summer of 1938. They were in business. Should they stay in Poland or emigrate to America? They decided to stay in Poland. They were Jewish.
On the same voyage in the Summer of ‘38 there is a middle aged lady accompanied by her niece as a travelling companion who is intending to travel on from Poland to spend a year in Germany “seeing for myself”. Both are Polish-American. Both are Jewish.
Upon returning to America two sisters, in their late twenties or early thirties, sit down and carefully paste all their shipboard photographs into an album. They also include luggage labels, ticket folders, telegrams sent and received aboard ship, copies of the ships daily newsletter for passengers in English and Polish (On the 18th July 1939 the lead news is that the British General Ironside is busy reassuring the Polish military attaché in London), an information booklet in English for passengers going ashore in Gdynia (complete with rail times and fares to Warsaw) and even the very paper hats they wore when photographed in the restaurant aboard ship!
First day covers from the maiden Atlantic crossing were particularly treasured and souvenir medallions often come today still neatly preserved in their original presentation case.
M/S Piłsudski was without any doubt a much loved and well-remembered ocean liner.
M/S Piłsudski commenced her last voyage as an Ocean Liner (Gdynia-Copenhagen-Halifax-New York) on 11th August 1939.
Upon the outbreak of World War II Pilsudski and Batory were put to military use by Poland’s British ally. M/S Piłsudski became an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
M/S Batory, “the lucky ship” survived the war unscathed. In 1945 on VE (Victory in Europe) Day she was safely in harbour in Glasgow. Guests at the onboard party included a young English WREN Florence (Floss) Luker and her Polish boyfriend Czesław Oborski whom she would later marry in the October of the same year. She (the ship not my mother) finally went out of service in 1977.
The career of M/S Piłsudski, however, ended in tragedy. On November 26th 1939 she was sunk by enemy action while on passage from the Tyne to Australia to collect troops.
The exact cause of the sinking is still clouded in speculation. Although asleep at the time First Officer Borchardt believed that the ship was sunk by German torpedoes. To this day this is the story generally accepted and repeated by the declining number of elderly members of the Polish émigré community in the United Kingdom who can remember those days.
The Germans too initially claimed the sinking as a U-Boat victory without, however, specifying too many details. It may be that from their point of view a “hands on” U-Boat attack sounded a lot more glamorous and daring than a rather more mundane truth both for home consumption and propaganda purposes in America.
British sources are unanimous in attributing the sinking to German magnetic mines. In ‘Księga Statków Polskich (Book of Polish Ships)1918-1945’ the authors note that the German destroyers ‘Erich Steinbrinck’, ‘Hans Lody’ and ‘Freidrich Eckoldt’ are recorded as having laid magnetic mines off the Humber on the nights of 11th and 12th November 1939. It is likely that the sinking was due to their efforts.
Second Officer Jan Michalski told the official British inquiry into the sinking:-
“We left Newcastle on Saturday evening, unescorted, and our vessel was painted with a black hull and grey superstructure. We carried a four-inch gun aft, and the draft of the vessel was 23ft aft and 19ft forward. As a matter of interest, although we were told nothing, except that we were going to Australia to take troops from there, everybody locally in Newcastle appeared to know everything about it.
We dropped anchor off the mouth of the Tyne, and stayed there for a few days. On the 26th November at about 0420 we passed Flamborough Head, and I was the Officer on Watch. We were heading on a course of 139 degrees for the Outer Dowsing, and there were two British Captains on board.
The tide was not very strong and we passed a few ships going in the opposite direction at about half a mile between us and the shore. I was told later that these ships formed a convoy. Our speed was about 19 knots, and the Officer of the Watch before me told me that we were quite safe, being in 20 fathoms of water.
At 0536 we were proceeding with lights on as it was now dark. Previously we had an order from the Captain to put on lights only if we were passing too close to another vessel, in order to avoid collision.
I was inside the wheelhouse at this time when the first explosion occurred. This explosion took place on the port side. All engine telephones were broken and put out of action. I did not observe any water spray at the time of the explosion. The vessel took an immediate 10 degree list to port. At first it appeared as if she was going to sink very quickly. The Captain ordered everybody to the lifeboat stations and eventually we lowered all boats.
My lifeboat was on the starboard side of the bridge, and it was a motor boat. I asked the Captain if I should lower my lifeboat and he said “No, it is better to go aft because of the list on the vessel”. As I proceeded aft I met a few of the crew of my lifeboat. I took them along and decided to lower my lifeboat after all. The Third Officer started to lower the port side lifeboat. He had some difficulty in unhooking the falls of rope so he decided to go to the starboard side lifeboat. The sea was very rough and it was exceedingly dark, but as I have stated previously, we managed at last to get all our lifeboats away.
During the night we noticed two ships quite close to us and at about daybreak we sighted the Valores. By this time we were about a mile from our vessel, and I also noticed that she had not yet sunk. I heard later that she had sunk about four hours after the explosions.
The Valores first picked up the Captain and two other members of crew who were on a raft. Unfortunately, the Captain… ...had been in the water for about an hour, and he died shortly afterwards from hypothermia and shock.”
So, for a moment, the symbol of Poland’s hopes and aspirations, M/S Piłsudski, became instead a symbol of her downfall—but only for a moment.
Captain Mamert Stankiewicz’s determination to stay aboard and see all his crew off the ship and the tragic circumstances of his death made him a national hero. He was buried with full ceremony and military honours in Hartlepool where the sinking of the M/S Piłsudski and the death of its brave Captain are remembered to this day.
As he stood by his Captain’s grave, First Officer Karol Olgierd Borchardt vowed, that, when the war was over, he would write a book about his life at sea, including his memories of the legendary Captain of the Lwów and the Piłsudski. In the early 1960’s he did indeed publish “Znaczy Kapitan” (“You Mean, Captain”). The title was taken from the expression “You mean…” with which Stankiewicz reputedly started virtually every sentence. The book was an immediate and greatly beloved bestseller and remains in print to this day delighting and inspiring each new generation of Polish youngsters!
The story of M/S Piłsudski and her Captain is featured in Polish history books and faithfully remembered in the displays and archives of the excellent Polish Centralne Muzeum Morskie (Central Maritime Museum) in a Gdansk (Danzig) now fully restored to Poland after World War II.
The gradually decaying wreck, lying in some 30 fathoms of water, has its visitors including my colleague Jan Ruszkowski. Hopefully they all treat the wreck with as much respect as Jan.
Today M/S Piłsudski has become once again exactly what her creators originally intended—a symbol of Polish aspiration and achievement—and far more than that—a symbol of Polish sacrifice, heroism, perseverance and of an unshakeable faith in the future of Poland itself. That is, quite rightly, how she will be remembered.
With sincerest thanks to…
- Dr Jerzy Litwin, Director of the Polish Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk, for allowing access to the Museum archives, and to his excellent staff for their kind assistance.
- Tadeusz Jarzembowski, President of the M/S Piłsudski Society, for his advice and guidance.
- Jan Ruszkowski, Co-Chairman of the M/S Piłsudski Society for his advice and assistance.
- Fran Oborski, Secretary of the M/S Pilsudski Society, for her support and forbearance in allowing a holiday in Gdansk to be diverted into research on the project.
- Tadek and Fran for detailed checking of the text.
All errors are, however, of course mine alone!
Mike Oborski
Hotel Podewils, Gdansk, August 2004
Bibliography…
‘Księga Statków Polskich 1918-1945’ Tom 1-3
(Book of Polish Ships1918-1945 Vols 1-3)
Jerzy Micinski, (with Bohdan Huras & Marek Twardowski Vol 3), Polnord, Gdansk (1996 / 1997 / 1999).
“Znaczy Kapitan” (“Captain ‘I Mean’”*) Karol Olgierd Borchardt, Oficyna Wydawnicza Miniatura, Gdynia (2003 edition)
“Szaman Morski” (“Shaman of The Sea”*) Karol Olgierd Borchardt, Oficyna Wydawnicza Miniatura, Gdynia (1998 edition)
* The titles are difficult to translate. Borchardt rechristened Captain Borkowski as “Szaman Kapitan” (Captain Shaman) and Captain Stankiewicz as “Znaczy Kapitan” (Captain ‘I Mean’) refering respectively to the style of the former and the vocal mannerisms of the later.
