On Monday 29th July the „SANTI Find the Eagle” team will set off for the eight time, on our mission to find the wreck of the famous submarine ORP „Orzeł” which patrolled under Royal Navy command during the Second World War in 1940.
The submarine went missing presumed lost in the North Sea between 23 May and 8 June 1940. After the fall of Poland to the Germans in 1939, the submarine undertook a perilous crossing of the Baltic and North Sea without charts and reported for duty under Royal Navy Command at the Scottish port of Rosyth. The Polish and British crew undertook several daring and successful missions before tragically disappearing.
This year’s search will track a theoretical route for the submarine’s tragic final patrol which I have reconstructed using further detailed historical research carried out over the past year.
Na zdjęciu od lewej: Tomasz Stachura, Benedykt Hac, Piotr Michalik
For the third time we will start the expedition leaving the coast of Denmark, sailing from Thyboron on a trawler ‘Nemo A’ which we will specially adapt and equip. It will be transformed for the duration of the expedition into a research ship. There will be seven members of the team, three core members (in the picture attached) plus 4 others.
This time we will be testing a theory that ORP “Orzeł” was lost within the first days of her patrol, concentrating primarily on her first patrol zone “A3” and the surrounding area.
I will update you on my return but meanwhile feel free to follow me on Twitter, although we will probably not have any signal while out at sea.
We do not underestimate the size of the challenge, but our expedition route has been carefully planned to maximise our chances of success and finally solve the mystery of the loss of O.R.P. Orzeł. I hope our dream will come true.
All readers of Portal British Poles are asked to keep their fingers crossed!
Author: Piotr Michalik
Piotr Michalik, who has a background in finance and expertise in financial technology, is the only member of the team based in the UK. He focuses on historical research and detailed mapping of the search area, providing the team with new theories to test as well as taking an active role in expeditions.
