SS ''Heraklion'' (sometimes spelled out in books as the ''Iraklion'') was a roll on/roll off car ferry operating the lines

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

–

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

and Piraeus –

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

(Irakleio) between 1965 and 1966. The ship capsized and sank on 8 December 1966 in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

, resulting in the death of more than 200 people. Its demise was one of the greatest maritime disasters of Greek history.

Background

SS ''Heraklion'' was built as SS ''Leicestershire'' by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Glasgow in 1949, for the Bibby Line to operate the route UK to

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. It was chartered by the British India Line for some time to supplement its London to

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

service. In 1964 it was sold to the Aegean Steam Navigation Co to operate as part of their Typaldos Lines, renamed SS ''Heraklion''. Once Typaldos Line took ownership, it was refitted as a passenger/car ferry. The ship had an overall length of , a beam of , gross register tonnage of 8,922 tons, propelled by a single

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

, reaching a speed of . The ship's winter capacity was 35 trucks with an average weight of 10 tons. ''Heraklion'' had its last survey on 29 June 1966.

Sinking

At 8:00 p.m. on 7 December 1966, and during extreme weather conditions, with southeast winds blowing at Force 9 on the Beaufort scale, ''Heraklion'' travelled from Souda Bay, Crete for Piraeus, after a two-hour delay, allegedly in order to embark a refrigerator truck that, according to most accounts, contributed to the sinking. Port authorities of Souda Bay who monitored the violent weather throughout the day had prohibited smaller vessels from leaving, but it was believed wrongly that such weather was not a threat to a ship of ''Heraklion'' size. The same night, an advertisement from the Typaldos Lines was shown in many movie theaters in Athens, promoting the Typaldos ships as: "The most luxurious, the most advanced and, of course, the safest.", with the ''Heraklion'' being the company's favourite in the advertisement, terming it: "The unmatched ferry Heraklion, with a speed of 17 knots." After midnight, the ''Heraklion'' was crossing the Myrtoan Sea amidst high waves and heavy winds that were steadily gaining speed. As the ship was rolling heavily from side to side, passengers began awakening in their cabins and children started crying. Cars were rocking back and forth, and the ship started taking on water. At 2:00 a.m., halfway through the voyage, sailing six miles off the small rocky island of Falkonera, the aforementioned refrigerator truck, which was carrying oranges and was either left unsecured or was strapped loosely, started to slam into the midship loading door, which eventually gave way and opened, and the truck plummeted into the sea, where it was found floating the next morning. Water immediately gushed in through the open loading door and the ''Heraklion'' started to develop a list. At 2:06 a.m., the first

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

signal was sent, saying: "This is Heraklion. The midship door has been destroyed. Ship is in danger." At the same time, the list was increasing by the minute and the ship was losing speed. Officers and crew tried desperately to save the ship, but to no avail, as the list worsened and the ship began to sink. At 02:07, the alarm was sounded. Life jackets were handed around hastily and the life boats were lowered desperately into the thunderous waves. At 2:13 a.m., only eight minutes after the first SOS, Heraklion's radio emitted a signal for the final time. "SOS, we're sinking! Coordinates are ! SOS, we're sinking!" After that message there was silence.

Rescue efforts

The SOS signal was repeated twice. The Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine was underequipped to handle the necessary communications, while the port authorities of Piraeus,

Syros Syros ( ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greece, Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and at the 2021 census it had 21,124 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano S ...

and other islands also reported that they were unable to offer assistance due to lack of equipment. Unfortunately, the ferry ''Minos'', which was away from the scene, did not receive the SOS. At around 2:30 a.m., the commander of the

Hellenic Coast Guard The Hellenic Coast Guard () is the national coast guard of Greece. Like many other coast guards, it is a paramilitary organization that can support the Hellenic Navy in wartime, but resides under separate civilian control in times of peace. The ...

was alerted, followed by the Minister of Mercantile Marine and the

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

. The Ministry of Defence reported that a ship of the then- Greek Royal Navy was at

, but that it would take three to four hours for it to get underway. A number of ships, including two British Royal Navy warships northeast of Crete, received the SOS and altered course for the scene. At 4:30 a.m., RHS ''Syros'' was ordered to sea, while an hour later the

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

was informed of the situation and the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

was alerted. At 06:30 the Premier informed King Constantine about the disaster. At 7:20 a.m. a Douglas C-47 Skytrain took off from Elefsis airport; soon after, two more followed suit. The first messages transmitted from the ships that arrived at the scene of the tragedy at 8:30 a.m were disheartening. There was no sign of debris from the ship and, more importantly, no sign of survivors. The first headlines of Greek newspapers reported that the ship had sunk with complete loss of life. The premier declared a week-long period of national mourning. At 9:45 a.m, the first C-47 Skytrain arrived at the scene and located the refrigerator truck, while rushed to the scene as well. The airplane circled above the truck, descending slowly to a lower altitude when the voice of the pilot of the second airplane sounded on the radio, almost commanding: "Your Highness, your flight path is dangerous, take height now!" The captain of the ''Ashton'', realising that the King himself was participating with the rescue operation, radioed: "Your Highness, ''Ashton'' is at your service." The King replied, "Thank you. Please follow me," as the airplanes spotted the few survivors and began air dropping life jackets. At 19:00 ''Leverton'' and ''Ashton'' docked at the port of Piraeus, where a large crowd had gathered to seek information and to wait for the rescue ships carrying survivors and bodies. A number of

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

ships, deployed in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

at the time of the sinking, participated with the search and rescue operations. They included , , , and . Officially, of 73 officers and crew and 191 passengers, only 46 were rescued (16 crew and 30 passengers), while 217 died. The exact number remains unknown since, at the time, it was customary to board the ship without a ticket, which would only be issued upon sailing. One of the dead was Michael Robert Hall King (born 1942), a grandson of Robert Baden-Powell. A survivor reported that his life had been saved by a person whose description fitted Michael, but he refused to climb into the lifeboat, and went back to try to save another. His body was never found.

Aftermath

The Greek government's investigation found the Typaldos Lines guilty of negligence for several reasons; there was no drill for abandoning ship, there was a delay of the sending of a distress call, and there was no organization of rescue work by the ship's officers. The company was also charged with manslaughter and faking documents. On 20 March 1968, after a month-long trial, seven defendants received sentences of up to five years in jail, including Haralambos Typaldos, the owner of the company, Panayotis Kokkinos, the general manager, and Nicholas Theodorakis, first mate, as well as the Head of Ship Inspections of the Ministry of Merchant Marine. It was also found that twelve of the company's fifteen ships had failed inspection by international law. Most of the remaining Typaldos ships were taken over and sold, either for scrap or other uses, to meet the costs of damages to the victims and crew severance pay. Three ships — , ''Athinai'' and ''Rodos'' — failed to find buyers and were laid up for 20 years before being sold for scrap and broken up in Turkey in 1989. In the meantime, the badly rusted ''Athinai'' was used in 1978–1979 as a floating set for the movie '' Raise the Titanic'' and was renamed ''Titanic'' for the duration of filming. During the 1990s a sculpture known as ''The Monument of the Hand'' was erected near the harbour in

to commemorate the victims of the accident.

Citations

References