Pilsudski

[Whickham]

I have received the following email regarding the PILSUDSKI, built in Italy in 1935 and apparently converted into a troop ship on the Tyne in 1939. I wonder if any of our members have any knowledge of the ship etc.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Pi%C5%82sudski

EMAIL
Dear Sir,
My name is Patryk Klein, and I am an employee of the National Maritime
Museum in Gdańsk, Poland. Our museum is conducting scientific
research to determine what happened to the artworks that were removed
from the Polish transatlantic liner m.s. Piłsudski at the Swan Hunter &
Wigham Richardson Co Ltd. shipyard in November 1939 and to establish
their legal status.
In 2024, we carried out extensive archival research, including at
the Monfalcone shipyard in Italy, where the ship was built in 1935,
in New York, where it regularly sailed between 1935 and 1939, and
in London, where we examined materials from, among others, the National
Archives in Kew Gardens. We are now approaching one of the final
stages of our research—a trip to Newcastle upon Tyne.
Since most of the documents related to the construction, operation, and
refurbishment of the ship in Newcastle were destroyed in
Poland during World War II, we are forced to gather information from
around the world to fully investigate the matter.
In 1935, the Association of Polish Architects (SARP) recognized the
interiors of m.s. Piłsudski as an outstanding achievement of Polish
culture in the newly reborn Republic of Poland. The ship’s interior was
designed and decorated by 78 renowned Polish artists, including
painters, sculptors, graphic designers, and interior architects. It was
considered a floating showcase of Polish culture.
While searching for information about the ship, I found www about
shipyard Swan Hunter.

I would like to find out if you have any information on where the
equipment of Piłsudski was stored during its reconstruction in the
shipyard, where exactly the shipyard kept it, and whether it was damaged
during Luftwaffe air raids on the shipyard area. In one of the
documents, we found confirmation that part of it survived until 1943—for
example, the ship's piano was found in Glasgow. Another fact is that
after the war, in 1947, the ship's owner, GAL, sent an employee to
Newcastle to recover part of the cargo from the STELP & LEIGHTON
warehouses, which was ultimately successful in 1948. These warehouses
were called Baxters.
Do you have any knowledge or documents related to the ship or its cargo,
or do you know where these records might have been transferred? Even the
smallest piece of information could be extremely valuable.