Greek ferry which sank off the coast of Paros Island (2000)
Express Samina
at
Piraeus
in July 2000.
|
History
|
|
Name
|
- 1966?1982:
Corse
- 1982?1999:
Golden Vergina
- 1999?2000:
Express Samina
|
Owner
| |
Operator
| |
Port of registry
| |
Builder
| |
Yard number
| F23
[1]
|
Launched
| 22 January 1966
|
Completed
| 1966
|
Maiden voyage
| 1966
|
In service
| 25 June 1966
[1]
|
Out of service
| 26 September 2000
[1]
|
Identification
| IMO number
:
6613548
[1]
|
Fate
| Hit rocks and sank off the coast of
Paros
island,
26 September 2000
[1]
|
Notes
| Sister ship to
Naias II
|
General characteristics
[1]
|
Tonnage
| |
Length
| 115.00 m (377 ft 4 in)
|
Beam
| 18.11 m (59 ft 5 in)
|
Draught
| 4.36 m (14 ft 4 in)
|
Decks
| 11
|
Installed power
| 2 × Atlantique?
Pielstick
16c (10,945
kW)
|
Speed
| 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
|
Capacity
|
- 1,500 passengers
- 170 cars
|
MS
Express Samina
(
Greek
:
Εξπρ?? Σ?μινα
) was a French-built
RoPax
ferry
that struck the charted Portes Islets rocks in the Bay of Parikia off the coast of
Paros
island in the central
Aegean Sea
on 26 September 2000. The accident resulted in 81 deaths
[4]
and the loss of the ship. The cause of the accident was crew negligence, for which several members were found criminally liable.
Ship history
[
edit
]
The ship was built as MS
Corse
in 1966 at
Chantiers de l'Atlantique
,
St Nazaire
, France
[1]
for
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
, along with her sister ship MS
Comte De Nice
. In 1969, she was transferred to Compagnie Generale Transmediterraneenne. After six years of service, the company changed its name again, to
SNCM
, to which she was transferred. She sailed from France for the last time in 1982, as she was sold to a Greek company, Stability Maritime, to operate their
Italy
?
Greece
?
Israel
route under her new name MS
Golden Vergina
.
[2]
In 1988, she was sold to the Agapitos Bros for service in the
Aegean sea
under Agapitos Lines, without a name change. She was then sold in 1999 to
Minoan Flying Dolphins
, again for service in the Aegean, when she was renamed
Express Samina
.
Disaster
[
edit
]
On the evening of Tuesday 26 September 2000, MS
Express Samina
left the
Port of Piraeus
with 473 passengers and 61 crew members. At 22:12
EEST
(19:12
UTC
), 2 nautical miles (4 km; 2 mi) off the port of
Parikia
,
Paros
, the ship hit the reef of Portes islets
[5]
at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). The wind at the time was 8 knots (4.1 m/s; 15 km/h; 9.2 mph) on the
Beaufort
scale. The ship sank close to the islets at 23:02, resulting in the deaths of 80 people from a total of 533 on board. The disaster resulted in two further deaths: on the night of the sinking, the port officer on duty died of a heart attack, and a few weeks later the CEO of the shipping company committed suicide.
The first responders to the distress call were fishing boats from the nearby port, followed by the port authorities and Royal Navy vessels, which were in the area carrying out a NATO exercise.
[6]
The fact that some of the crew did not help the passengers evacuate the sinking ferry contributed to the death toll.
[5]
The crew had placed the ship on
autopilot
and there were no crew members watching the ship. Even with autopilot on, standard practice calls for one crew member to watch the controls, for example to avoid collisions with other vessels. The crew had deployed the
fin stabilizers
system to decrease the motions in bad weather; normally both stabiliser fins would deploy, but in this case the port stabilizer fin failed to extend, causing the ship to drift and therefore not travel in a straight line. A crew member discovered the problem and tried to steer the ship to port, but this action occurred too late and at 22:12 local time (19:12 UTC), the ship struck the east face of the taller Portes pinnacle. The rocks tore a 6-metre-long (20 ft) and 1-metre-wide (3 ft) hole above the water line. After the impact, the rocks bent the stabilizer fin backwards, and the fin cut through the side of the hull, below the waterline and next to the engine room. The water from the 3-metre (10 ft) gash destroyed the main generators and cut off electrical power. The water spread beyond the engine room, and the operators could not remotely shut the doors due to a lack of electrical power.
Professor David Molyneux, an expert in the performance of ships in harsh environments,
[7]
said that the damage sustained by the MS
Express Samina
should not normally sink such a ship. The ship sank because nine of its eleven watertight compartment doors were open even though safety laws require ship operators to close and lock the safety doors. Molyneux described the open watertight doors as the most significant aspect of the sinking.
[8]
This conclusion was supported by an in-depth study of the Ship Design Laboratory ? National Technical University of Athens, a summary of which was presented at the 8th International Conference on the Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles, (Papanikolaou, A., Spanos, D., Boulougouris, E., Eliopoulou, E., Alissafaki, A., "Investigation Into The Sinking Of The RO-RO Passenger Ferry Express Samina").
[9]
Chronology of the sinking
[
edit
]
At 22:15 EEST (19:15 UTC), three minutes after impact, the ship was listing by five degrees to starboard. By 22:25, the list had increased to fourteen degrees and water began to enter the ship through the six-metre gash. By 22:29, the ship was listing by twenty-three degrees, preventing the launching of additional lifeboats; only three of the eight lifeboats were deployed. At 22:32 the ship had listed by 33 degrees, and by 22:50 the ship lay on its side. The clock on the bridge stopped at 23:02, which the authorities took to be an indication of the time at which the ship sank. In addition to the main cause of the sinking (open watertight doors),
[9]
the degree of damage, the scenario, and the open vehicle deck space in
roro ferry
design were contributing factors.
[8]
[10]
[9]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Panoramic view over the bay of Parikia, with the Portes islets visible on the left.
The port-master of Parikia, Dimitris Malamas, died the same night from a heart attack due to the stress of the evacuation operations.
[8]
As a result of the sinking, ferries were retired after 30 years instead of 35, under Greece's new laws precipitated by the disaster. These laws were eventually relaxed due to the aging Greek fleet, but ships over 30 years old must comply with strict safety standards, and regular inspections are carried out by authorities. Additionally, this hastened the adoption of
voyage recorders
, the equivalent of
black boxes
for ships; all passenger ferries are now required by law to contain voyage recorders.
[8]
On 29 November 2000, Pandelis Sfinias (
Παντελ?? Σφηνι??
) the manager of the company Minoan Flying Dolphins, committed suicide by jumping from his sixth-floor office window.
[11]
He had been charged with criminal negligence in conjunction with this ferry disaster, and had been the focus of much media attention. A subsequent coroner's report revealed alcohol and antidepressants in his system at the time of his death. There was no note, but media reports hinted at a possible call made before he jumped. Several crew members, as well as representatives for the owners, were subsequently charged with different criminal charges, including
manslaughter
and
negligence
. The trial commenced in late July 2005.
First officer Tassos Psychoyios was sentenced to 19 years, while Captain Vassilis Giannakis received a 16-year sentence. Psychoyios had been watching a football match on television when the ship hit the rocks, according to witnesses. Three crew members were sentenced to between 15 months and 8 years 9 months for a series of misdemeanours that included abandoning ship without the captain's permission.
[12]
The
City of Seattle
honoured 26-year-old Heidi Hart and 32-year-old Christine Shannon, two American passengers, for heroism during the disaster. The women had rescued two men.
[8]
[13]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
The disaster was featured in "Collision Course", a
Season 3 (2005)
Crash Scene Investigation
episode of the Canadian TV series
Mayday
[8]
as well as the third episode of the first season of
I Survived...
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
Asklander, Micke.
"M/S
Corse
(1966)"
.
Fakta om Fartyg
(in Swedish)
. Retrieved
28 September
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Lulurgas, Michele.
"F/B GOLDEN VERGINA'
"
.
ADRIATIC AND AEGEAN FERRIES
. Retrieved
28 September
2008
.
- ^
"Express Samina"
.
Shipspotting
. Retrieved
10 October
2020
.
- ^
"Time Machine: Express Samina, 15 years since tragedy that left 81 dead (in Greek)"
.
www.news247.gr
. 27 September 2015
. Retrieved
2 October
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Poffley, Frewin (2005).
"Ferry Disaster off Paros"
.
www.greekislandhopping.com
. Archived from
the original
on 20 January 2011
. Retrieved
2 April
2011
.
- ^
"Greek ferry captain arrested as death toll hits 62"
.
The Guardian
. 27 September 2000
. Retrieved
19 March
2018
.
- ^
"David Molyneux, B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD"
.
min.ca
.
Memorial University of Newfoundland
. Archived from
the original
on 25 January 2021
. Retrieved
31 August
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Collision Course".
Mayday
. Season 3. Episode 11. 2005.
Discovery Channel Canada
/
National Geographic Channel
.
- ^
a
b
c
Papanikolaou, A.; Spanos, D.; Boulougouris, E.; Eliopoulou, E.; Alissafaki, A.; of the National Technical University of Athens-Ship Design Laboratory.
"Investigation Into The Sinking Of The RO-RO Passenger Ferry Express Samina"
(PDF)
.
shipstab.org
. 8th International Conference on the Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 9 August 2017
. Retrieved
31 August
2021
.
- ^
"British women escaped, only to be shipwrecked again minutes later"
.
The Independent
. 27 September 2000
. Retrieved
18 September
2008
.
- ^
The rough guide to the Greek islands ? 5th Edition
by Lance Chilton, Marc Dubin, Mark Ellingham (
ISBN
184353259X
22 June 2004)
- ^
"Samina crew receive long prison terms"
.
ekathimerini.com
. 28 February 2006
. Retrieved
12 April
2011
.
- ^
Vlahou, Toula (16 October 2000).
"Spared by the Sea"
.
People
. Vol. 54, no. 16. Archived from
the original
on 3 June 2009.
External links
[
edit
]
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Former ships
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Years indicate year of entry into service with the CGT.
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 2000
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Shipwrecks
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Other incidents
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