One of the most tragic shipwrecks in the Greek seas was located by the underwater research team of Kostas Thoktaridis at a depth of 153 meters northeast of Hydra: The minesweeper “Sperchios” that sank on Holy Wednesday, in May 1945, and became a liquid grave of 98 people.
“The wreck is located on the seabed bearing 2 degrees to the left and at a depth of 153 meters northeast of Hydra, in international territorial waters. In the bow can be seen the 20mm gun mount that the ship carried before its conversion from minesweeper to auxiliary fleet”, says Kostas Thoktaridis speaking to the Athenian Macedonian News Agency.
He adds: “The left anchor chain is absent, while the right one is in place. A small vertical crack was found on the left side. Transverse and longitudinal beams can be distinguished, which have holes for nailing the sheet metal. On the lower side of the stern a windlass net has covered the rudder and propeller.’
“On the left side of the superstructures, the only open door of the wreck can be seen in the midship (about the middle of the ship). The debris on the deck and the distortions of auxiliary supports in the superstructures indicate movement to the left,” he explains.
The Fatal Journey
On May 2, 1945, at 5:00 p.m., the “Sperchios” sailed from Piraeus, bound for the Aegean islands of Syros, Samos, Chios and Lesvos, having just left mooring.
It was Maundy Wednesday and the minesweeper – due to a lack of passenger ships – was used to service coastal transport carrying military personnel as well as private citizens who went to their respective homelands to celebrate Easter with their families. It was the first post-war free communication between the center and the islands.
The boarding status of the Piraeus Port Authority included 75 passengers with a limit of 40, but with certainty they had allowed the boarding of many more, almost twice as many, while at the same time a large number of luggage and even household goods had been piled on the aft deck, presenting a permanent left leaning on the boat.
The weather was very good and the sea calm. After a three-hour journey, just after dark, it started to rain and passengers who were not in sheltered areas began to move to the left, despite the crew’s recommendations.
Publication about the wreck of the SPERCHIOS, from the Newspaper Archive of the General Secretariat of Communication and Information
The skipper was not on the bridge and when he realized that the helmsman had taken a dangerous course bringing the ship close to a sea minefield, trying to avoid mortal danger he turned the rudder to starboard.
“Sperchios” lost its stability, banked to the left and overturned. Within minutes the sea covered the overturned ship, which sank with its bow, taking with it those inside it who did not even have time to react…
Equally tragic was the fate of many passengers, who were found at sea. The ship’s radio operator did not have time to send a distress signal, there were no ships in the wider area and those who managed to stay afloat swam for hours without life jackets fighting to stay alive.
The “Acropolis” newspaper of the time mentions characteristically: “20 castaways held on to a barrel for hours until the cold and exhaustion paralyzed their hands… only 7 of them finally managed to be saved.”
The rescue
At 3 in the morning one of the shipwrecked, the harbor master of Syros pilot Pan. Dalianis heard the sound of a boat engine passing by the area and started calling for help.
It was the diesel engine “Agios Spyridon” which was heading towards Piraeus and hearing the voices rushed to the area and gathered 37 shipwrecked people, whom he took to the Naval Cadet School in Piraeus.
The last survivor of the wreck
When the Greek Admiralty was informed about the wreck, it ordered a destroyer and two torpedo boats to go to the sea area in order to carry out investigations for the possible finding of other wrecks.
On May 3 at 16:00 a woman was found alive on the rocky shore of Cape Zourvas. It was Maria Rousi, who swam for nine hours until she managed to get ashore.
“My first effort when I was in the sea was to get rid of my dresses,” she later described.
“Then I marked my waypoint, cape Zurva. At first I heard desperate voices all around me. But they were fading away little by little. Shadow floating around me. I was overwhelmed by the hope of reaching the cape and I spent nine hours on the sea. It took another six hours of Robinsonian waiting in the deserted cave to collect myself.’
Searches by Navy ships continued but no more survivors were found and their work was unfortunately limited to collecting bodies.
Whole families were exterminated and many of them were from Syros, like Mari Ladopoulou who lost her life together with her son Elpidophoro, his wife Dessy and their two little girls Eleni and Maria, 3 and 1.5 years old.
Along with them, 7.5-year-old Maria Neophytou, granddaughter of Mari Ladopoulou and daughter of the captain Loukas Neophytou, Dim. Ladopoulos and his wife Fani.
Among the victims were the wife and two sons of 5 and 7 years old of the rescued Coast Guard Syros Pan. Daliani, the sea captain John. Vlachopoulos and his wife, Kon. Razis and his wife Dora, the wife of the rescued master shipbuilder Filippou, the 11-year-old Eleni Liambei, the daughter of the director of ETMA, colonel E. Kottis and his daughter, the Philhellenic Swede Marten Nordstrom, a member of the International Red Cross who had taken over the organization distribution of aids and especially child care.
The exact number and details of the victims were very difficult to determine in the first days because the supernumerary passengers were not officially recorded except for the 75 for whom the relevant permits had been issued.
The exact number and details of the victims were very difficult to determine in the first days because the excess numbers were not officially recorded
Snapshot from the discovery of the wreck of the minesweeper “SPERCHIOS”
The team’s research into primary sources
The team’s research into primary sources from the Office of Naval History, the Press Office and British archives yielded the following evidence:
The passengers of “Sperchios” together with the crew were 136, of whom 38 survived and 98 lost their lives.
For the causes of this maritime tragedy, investigations followed and the captain of the ship, the commander of the Piraeus Naval Base, the director of the traffic office of the Port Authority of Piraeus, the traffic control officer of the Port Authority of Piraeus and a seaman of the L.S.
Captain Neophytos, then commander of maritime schools who lost his daughter and two nieces in the wreck, declared at the maritime court: “In my opinion the wreck of the ‘Sperchios’ is not due to overloading and not even the turning of the rudder can capsize the ship for technical reasons. I believe there was a botched inspection during the recent tanking.”
The Maritime Court of Piraeus sentenced the captain of the ship to six months in prison with a three-year suspension while the rest of the defendants were acquitted – 79 years later the shipwreck was found.
The research team first located the sunken minesweeper from the sea surface with sonar and then videotaped it with an ROV unmanned underwater vehicle. The dimensions of the wreck as well as its position in relation to the deposits of the time, are identified with its history.
Minesweeper “Sperchios” was built in 1912 at Smith’s Dock in Middlesbrough, England as a whaler named NOBLE NORA measuring 32 meters long and 6.4 meters wide.
In June 1917 she was commissioned by the British Navy and fitted out as a patrol boat. In April 1941 it received the designator FY.189. In September 1943 she was given to the Navy by the British.
