ORP Sęp
ORP Sęp in Sweden 1939.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Poland
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| Name: | ORP Sęp |
| Laid down: | November 1936 |
| Launched: | 17 October 1938 |
| Commissioned: | 16 April 1939 |
| Decommissioned: | 15 September 1969 |
| Fate: | scrapped in 1972 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Orzeł-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 84 m (275 ft 7 in) |
| Beam: | 6.7 m (22 ft 0 in) |
| Draft: | 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in) |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 50-53 |
| Armament: |
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For the second ORP Sęp serving in the Polish Navy since 2002, see ORP Sęp (2002).
ORP Sęp was an Orzeł-class submarine serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. In Polish her name means Vulture.
Built at the Dutch shipyard Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij, she was laid down in November 1936 and launched on 17 October 1938. In early 1939 the Polish team supervising the building of the ship noticed a significant slowdown in her construction, which it attributed to the action of German agents. Because of fears that German pressure on the Netherlands would prevent that country from delivering the ship into Polish hands, it was decided to bring the ship to Poland earlier than scheduled. On 2 April, the ship left for deep water sea trials in Horten, Norway, with a crew of Polish sailors and Dutch technicians, under the Dutch flag. After completing the trials, the Polish crew took control of the ship (against the will of the Dutch technicians on board), raised the Polish flag and left Horten to rendezvous with the Polish destroyer ORP Burza outside the harbour. All but two Dutch workers were left ashore in Norway. From Burza the submarine received additional crew and supplies, then sailed under her escort to Poland. On the way the ship ran out of diesel fuel and had to be taken in tow by the destroyer. On 18 April Sęp arrived in Gdynia, entering the harbour on her electric engines, and was officially commissioned into the Polish navy. The remaining two Dutch technicians were released and allowed to return home. The fitting out of the ship continued in Poland, with parts arriving from the Netherlands after the relations with the Dutch were repaired following the "hijacking", but was not finished before the war broke out, hence the ship was not at full readiness in September 1939. A visit to Rotterdam to finish the fitting out was contemplated but the outbreak of war prevented it.
Sęp sailed into the naval port of Hel a few days before the war started, commanded by kmdr ppor. Władysław Salamon. On 1 September, the first day the war, the submarine took up her patrol sector in accordance with the Worek Plan. On 2 September she attacked a German destroyer Friedrich Ihn with a single torpedo which missed, with the destroyer responding with heavy depth-charging which damaged the submarine, causing water leaks. On 3 September Sęp was attacked again and suffered more damage, which caused more leaks into the ship. With her position clearly revealed to the enemy, the submarine left her assigned sector and began to sail in the direction of Gotland Island. Over the next few days she operated without contact with the enemy in the vicinity of Sweden, her crew trying to repair the damage, and her captain requesting permission to return to base in order to carry out more repairs, which was denied.
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