Heraklion (ship)

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The Heraklion (after the Cretan port city of Heraklion ) was a ship of the Typaldos shipping company (Aegean Steam Shipping Tipaldos Bros, Greek: τμοπλοΐα Αιγαίου Αδελφών Σ. Τυπάλδου). It sank on December 8, 1966, southeast of the island of Falkonera on the journey from Crete to Piraeus .

history

The ship was built in 1949 on the Clyde by Fairfield Shipbuilders and used by the British shipping company Bibby Line under the name Leicestershire as a combined cargo and passenger ship in the East Asian service to Ceylon and Burma . In 1964 it was bought by the Greek shipping company Typaldos and converted into a car ferry . This was used under the name Heraklion on the Chania (Crete) –Piräus route, was 152 m long, 18 m wide, had 8,922  GRT and drove 14.5  knots . In the winter months the capacity of the ship was 35 trucks with an average weight of 10 t. The last inspection of the ship before the sinking took place on June 29, 1966.

The downfall

The Heraklion sank on December 8, 1966 on the way from the island of Crete to Piraeus near the island of Milos . On the last trip, an insufficiently secured refrigerated truck came loose in heavy seas. He was thrown through the cargo doors located amidships in the side ship's side, which were then forced open, causing large amounts of water to quickly penetrate the vehicle deck. The Heraklion thereby quickly got serious flip side and capsized because the scuppers to were small and the penetrated water could not flow away again. 241 people lost their lives in the accident; only 47 were able to leave the ship in time before the sinking and be rescued.

Effects

  • A large part of the drowned personnel came from Lixouri , the home of the shipping family on the island of Kefalonia, many families had victims to complain about and most of them refused to accept the small amount of compensation. The long-established Typalpos family, who come from the Neapolitan aristocratic Tirpado family, suffered damage to their image that also affected bystanders.
  • The shipping company ANEK Lines was founded in Crete because the cause of the accident was seen in the non-Cretan owner. Only Cretans were allowed to buy shares in the shipping company.
  • Charalamos Typaldos, the owner of the shipping company and Panajiotis Kokkinos, the manager were convicted and served a sentence until 1968. In an inspection of the remaining ships that had been ordered in the meantime, 12 of 15 did not comply with the Greek safety regulations. The Typaldos shipping company then went bankrupt.

literature

  • P. Ransome-Wallis: Railway ferries in Western Europe . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1969.
  • Sinking of the "Heraklion" near Milos (report by the then crew member Hans Egidius, who sailed as a boatman on the MS Lienersand . The mentioned motor ship was present during the rescue work to save survivors), "Jeversches Wochenblatt" of December 8, 2010.