Wrecking expeditions - end of activities around ORP "Kujawiak"

In recent years the Shipwreck Expeditions team has undertaken four expeditions with the aim of finding and then exploring and documenting the wreck of the Polish WWII vessel ORP – Kujawiak (L-72). Each of these expeditions was successful and you could follow them on an ongoing basis via our portal.

Now the leading figure behind the kujawiak project, Roman Zajder, has decided to share a few thoughts by posting a few sentences of summary on his facebook profile.

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The third expedition to the wreck of a Polish destroyer, organised in 2016, was an undoubted success. It was then that the ship’s bell, which was one of the main objectives of the expedition, was found. The next, this year’s edition of the expedition, made it possible to extract the bell from the wreck and transfer it to the Maritime Museum in La Valletta.

It was here that two years earlier, ceremonies were held to commemorate 13 seamen of ORP “Kujawiak”, who 73 years ago lost their lives during the sinking of the vessel. A commemorative plaque dedicated to the heroic crew was also unveiled.

On 22 September 2014, the Polish expedition “The Hunt for L72″ located and identified the wreck of the Polish destroyer ORP “Kujawiak”. On 16 June 1942, the vessel sank off the coast of Malta, where she was on escort duty. While protecting one of the transports, the L-72 hit a mine and went down. On that day 13 Polish seamen lost their lives.

During her short service, “Kujawiak” participated in missions in the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. The last wartime touch before sinking was the big operation “Harpoon”, during which she escorted supplies to Malta.

The keel for ORP “Kujawiak” was laid on 22 November 1939 in Vickers-Armstrong shipyard, High Walker, Tyne. The Hunt II type destroyer was originally planned to enter service with the Royal Navy as HMS “Oakley”. The situation changed when the Polish government placed an order for 18 ships of this type on 4 September 1939. The order for 18 ships of this type was placed by the Polish government on 4 September 1939. “Kujawiak” was one of the three from this order that went to our Navy.

The L-72 measured 85.34m long and 9.62m wide. The displacement of the vessel was 1050t. The ship was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, 19000 shp; two Admiralty type boilers and two screws. This allowed her to develop a speed of 27 knots and translated into a range of 2000Mm at 20 knots and 3700Mm at an economy speed of 14 knots.

The whole unit was armed with 6 universal guns cal. 102 mm, 4 plot guns cal. 40 mm, 2-4 plot guns cal. 20 mm, 2 machine guns cal. 7.7 mm, 1-2 launchers and 2 depth bomb throwers.