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The Orzeł class was a short series of modern submarines built in Dutch shipyards for the Polish Navy in the 1930s. Initially the design was to be built in the United Kingdom, but the price proposed was too high and the British Admiralty announced that building a fast submarine with over 20 knots (37 km/h) of surface speed was technically impossible.[1] The two submarines ordered, the ORP Orzeł and ORP Sęp (four were initially planned), were eventually based on the Dutch O-19 class submarine, but were significantly modified to fit the Polish specifications for a multi-purpose vessel to be used both on shallow waters of the Baltic Sea and in the high seas. They were among the most modern submersibles in the allied fleets at the outbreak of World War II. Their speed was 19.5 knots (36 km/h).
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