On 27 August 2023 we completed the tenth expedition under the SANTI Finding the Eagle project.
Despite intensive preparations and continuous efforts, the ORP “Orzeł” ship remains undiscovered.
This year we continued the search with the following members:
Benedykt Hac
Karol Jacob
Maciej Honc
Michał Niemczycki
Piotr Michalik
Tomasz Stachura.
We set off from the Netherlands and sailed 2,200 km of the North Sea.
During the six days spent on the Tonijn vessel, we examined 149 potential wreck positions.
The Eagle could not be found.
However, our determination does not falter.
Thank you for your support and for believing in us.
A big thank you goes to the sponsors and partners who made a special contribution to making this year’s expedition happen:
BMB
Van Laar Maritime B.V.
QPS maritime geomatics software solutions
Escort Technology
Norbit Subsea
TopWave
ACO Wave
SANTI Diving
The project would not have come into being without the commitment of a group of passionate people who have been dedicating their private time to organize more expeditions together over the years.
We would like to thank the entire team, as well as the people who support us in Poland and abroad, thanks to Gert Normann and the Sea War Museum Jutland.
A detailed report of the SANTI Finding the Eagle 2023 expedition can be found here.
The 2020 expedition team.
On 9th March 2020 the “Santi Find the Eagle” team returned to harbour from their latest expedition. The voyage in March experienced adverse weather conditions, with 7 m waves and high winds, but much was achieved in the five days at sea.
Their mission is to find the legendary Polish World War II submarine ORP Orzel, which went missing on her sixth and last patrol which commenced on 23 May 1940 sailing out of Rosyth under Royal Navy command. The Orzel (the name means eagle) and her heroic Polish and British crew were declared lost when she failed to return to base by 8 June 1940. The inspiring story of Orzel’s daring escape from Nazi detention in Estonia in the opening days of the Second World War is well known.
Latest expedition route.
Santi Find the Eagle is a private foundation, with the main sponsor Gdynia-based Santi, a leading brand in the global dive equipment market.
For the ninth expedition, particularly significant as it was taking place on the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of the Polish submarine, the mission took place in partnership with the Sea War Museum Jutland, sailing from the Danish port of Thyborøn, the base for the previous three expeditions. This year the vessel chosen for the search was the survey ship Vina, 77 m long, 14 m wide, belonging to J D Contractor, and which is fully fitted with multibeam scanning equipment and facilities for diving.
One of the divers.
The Polish/Danish expedition consisted of 26 members, including Gert Normann of Sea War Museum Jutland and eight Poles including the divers Tomasz Stachura, Lukasz Piorewicz, Marek Cacaj, Jacek Kapczuk, Piotr Lalik and Lukasz Pastwa. Historian Piotr Michalik and TV cameraman Jerzy Rudzinski completed the Santi Find The Eagle team representatives involved in the search.
In the five days the crew sailed 743 miles, aiming to check specific points located in the area of British and German minefields during the war. In all, 32 points were checked and 20 wrecks scanned, of which two were submarines, raising the hopes of all involved that one might be ORP Orzel. It was not, but one of these ships was identified as British World War I submarine HMS L10 which was lost over 100 years ago, on 3 October 1918.
Vina, the survey ship on latest search.
The wreck, near the island of Terschelling, was examined using a remotely operated vessel, and the Santi Find the Eagle divers explored underwater, taking the first photographs of the submarine despite poor visibility. Knowing the history of the destruction of HMS L10, it is likely that a second wreck, located just 160 m from the submarine, is a badly damaged German destroyer that took part in the sinking of the British vessel.
In total, in all expeditions, the Santi Find the Eagle team have located more than 400 wrecks. In 2017, they discovered the position of another British WW2 submarine, HMS Narwhal. This year’s search did not result in the long sought goal, but the whole team is even more determined to find ORP Orzel on another expedition that will be taking place soon, possibly this year.
From 31st July to 8th August 2019, we managed to accomplish another expedition searching the ORP ‘Eagle” wreck in the North Sea within the”SANTI Odnalezc Orla” project. Loading and transport of the necessary equipment was carried out without any major problems. Early, on 29 July, in the morning we started the first stage by moving from Gdynia to Denmark. We started the expedition in the port of Thyboron, and for searching we used the same ship as the year before – NEMO ‘A’. The installation and launching of equipment went smoothly, mainly thanks to our specialists from the Maritime Institute in Gdansk. The composition of the crew changed slightly during the year, although the new members of the crew, as it turned out later, surprised us with their determination and professionalism. This year in our team included: Tomasz Stachura, head of the expedition, Benedykt Hac, head of the hydrographic team, two hydrographs Pawel Wysocki and Karol Jacob, Piotr Michalik responsible for historical support in the UK and two divers Lukasz Piorewicz and Marek Cacaj.
The assumptions and plans of this year’s expedition were slightly different from previous ones. So far we have focused on verifying so-called “Friendly Fire” hypothesis, according to which, the Eagle could have been accidentally sunk by the English. We have already searched 4 times the area connected with this hypothesis. This time we decided to focus on new actions. For this year’s expedtion we chose the area “A3”, which is connected with the hypothesis that ORP “Eagle” could sink in its first days after the departure. This is supported by the fact that ‘Eagle” did not contact the base in Rosyth even once during the whole last patrol. There are two hypotheses behind this, either ‘Eagle’ had a broken radio station, which made contact impossible, or ‘Eagle’ was sunk at the beginning of the patrol. Thanks to the numerous hours of preparation, verification of hundreds pages in the archives, conversations with local fishermen, we had prepared positions that we were going to verify.
In the first days of the trip the weather was favorable. Seasoned in battle, motivated and tenacious, we proceeded to act and check our positions. To explore the seabed we used an advanced multi-beam SeaBat 7125, thanks to the support of GeoFusion company. We checked about 200m of seabed, with each meter we’ve been creating a three-dimensional map. When wrecks appeared on the screens, not only we were able to determine what kind of vessel, cutter, merchant ship or warship it is, but also the dimensions of the wreck with an accuracy of 0.5m.
In total we crossed 984 NM (1824km). We managed to check 183 positions, 83 of them were wrecks. In the case of 14 positions, the sonar indicated anomalies, which in the end could have been the remains of pipes, stones or naturally shaped hills. We worked day and night, the equipment worked practically without rest, just like we did. Some of the verified positions came from local fishermen who, in order to support us, shared maps and knowledge gained for generations. Some of the positions we gained were never confirmed, so we wanted to verify everything to make sure we didn’t miss our “Eagle” anywhere.
The weather conditions changed on the seventh day of the expedition, huge waves were throwing the unit and the researches were very difficult. The equipment was on the verge of being able to scan the seabed. In order to complete our plan, we worked constantly. On the eighth day we decided to end the expedition and return. Traditionally, in order to commemorate our heroes and all those who died at sea, we put a wreath.
We do not give up, we are full of enthusiasm. After a moment of rest, return home, we will be ready to act. Further we know that the “Eagle” is waiting for us….
At this point, we would like to express our special thanks to all those who support us. Unusual words of encouragement increase our motivation. Many thanks to our partners: Maritime Institute in Gdansk for providing equipment and Yellow Cargo for logistic support. We would also like to thank our sponsors, SANTI for the long-term support of our project, DAMEN for the financial support and GeoFusion.
It sounds unbelievable, but in a few hours we set off for the first search for Orla this year! But from the beginning…… A year ago, as the Santi Odnalezc Orla, we were in cooperation with the #SeaWarMuseumJutland and its boss and founder Gert Normannem. It turned out that the areas of search for our Orla coincide with those who are also studying. Then We were assured that in 2019 we would be able to participate in their Expedition. #GertNormann turned out to be verbale and I rounded up on a large research ship M/S Vina in Thyboron, Denmark, the port from which we started a year ago. The ship is truly impressive, we have all the hydrographic equipment necessary to identify wrecks, and the size of the ship gives us a chance to work even in the big wavePrior to us 5 days of search. The Danes have the positions of 15 hundred wrecks of interest to us. And the aim of this year’s searches are 3 submarines: Dutch O13, British HMS Thamesi our Polish ORP Orzel. Wouldn’t be better -)) routes you can search for herrings here ://wwww.vesselfinder.com/…/VINA-IMO-7712896-MMSI-220474…Weather forecast Completely planned to go out to sea tonight keep your fingers crossed, this time….
Expedition “Santi Odnaleźć Orła” postponed for the next second quarter of 2019.
On September 28, 2018, we made a difficult decision to stop the expedition and postpone it for next year. It was dictated by fatal weather conditions which did not allow us to start hydrographic research aimed at verifying the hypothesis that the reason for the sinking of the Polish ship was the bombing of a British aircraft. The expedition was to set off from the Danish port of Thyborøn on board the ship M/S “NEMO A”.
This is already the fifth expedition of Poles. So far, they have been setting off from Great Britain and the Netherlands. This time the searchers will leave Denmark. Poles will sweep the waters in an area located 100 miles from Scotland and 200 miles from the coast of Denmark. Poles want to check if on June 3, 1940 “Eagle” sank forever due to “friendly fire”, i.e. fratricidal attack of British aviation.
The team led by Stachura has been systematically searching for ORP “Orzeł” for several years. Starting from 2014, it organizes annual expeditions under the name “Santi odnaleźć Orła”.
In June 2017, Poles managed to bring the mystery of the disappearance of another boat closer to the solution. Poles encountered the wreck of the British submarine HMS “Narwhal”.
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The Polish team hopes that in connection with the meeting with the families of British seafarers in January, the information about the search for the Eagle will also be disseminated. “Perhaps someone will remember some detail about the Eagle that will help us in our mission,” he said. This time, however, they count on Danish fishermen and their knowledge.
The British media are interested in the search for Poles and a possible confirmation that a British plane sank a Polish ship by mistake. The next expedition is reported, among others, by inews.co.uk service.
“We looked through the reports and we know that the RAF recorded the incident at the time when the Polish ship was killed. German records suggest that they did not lose any U-Boots at that time. We are very determined to succeed and find a Polish submarine” – inews.co.uk quotes Piotr Michalik from “Santi Odnaleźć Orła”.
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another expedition+Polish+seekers+humans+underwater+ORP+Orzel+consciousness+news,/awareness/article?jdnews_id=54056
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A group of intrepid Polish divers were in London for an emotional meeting on January 12, 2018, with relatives of the brave seamen who served on HMS Narwhal, a British submarine sunk by the Luftwaffe in the North Sea on July 23, 1940, with the loss of 58 lives.
(more…)
For years they have wondered precisely where and how their loved ones lost their lives.
Now, more than 70 years on, relatives of 58 sailors lost when a British submarine was sunk during a German attack are planning to visit the spot where it went down. (more…)
he final resting place of 58 British seaman who were killed when their submarine sank in World War Two has been discovered in the North Sea by accident.
http://www.allaboutshipping.co.uk/2018/01/17/families-meet-to-commemorate-wartime-british-seamen-lost-on-hms-narwhal/
Families meet to commemorate wartime British seamen lost on HMS Narwhal
By Piotr Michalik
A group of intrepid Polish divers were in London for an emotional meeting on January 12, 2018, with relatives of the brave seamen who served on HMS Narwhal, a British submarine sunk by the Luftwaffe in the North Sea on July 23, 1940, with the loss of 58 lives. (more…)
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