As one of Hull Maritime History Tour Guides, Ian Martin adapts his tours to the people he is taking on the tour.
One day a Polish couple came with me and I told them the story of the largest ship wreck off the Yorkshire coast.
The MS Pilsudski was a passenger liner designed to carry passengers from New York to Gdynia, Poland . The Second World War had just broken out and many of the passengers she was carrying were Jewish.
Having crossed the Atlantic the ship was diverted to Newcastle and the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a troop transport. On the 26 November 1939 she set sail for Australia to bring back troops for the war effort.
She didn't get far after striking a mine just off the coast of Withernsea, just a few miles from the River Humber. She was the pride of the Polish Merchant fleet and though she was not as large as some other liners she was affectionately nicknamed the Polish Titanic.
Named after Josef Pilsudski the founder of modern Poland she still lies there just a couple of miles off our coast.
