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'The ship's left side turned into a slide. One after the other we fell into the sea'

Rory Carroll in Athens
Guardian

Thursday September 28, 2000

Sunset had given way to black night and the passengers were growing used to the throb of the engines. Some sat at the bar, others had made their way to their bunks. It was time to wind down.

The chaos of embarkation at the Athens port of Piraeus, when those who had reserved cabins were jumbled with those who had not, was forgotten as more than 500 passengers concentrated on having a good holiday or, in the case of some Greek islanders, returning home.

Blustery winds rolled waves against the hull but the 115 metre Express Samina ploughed steadily south at 18 knots through the Aegean.

From 9.45pm the television in the bar started showing a European Champions League football match between Hamburg and the Greek team Panathinaikos. Reception was fuzzy but that did not deter the crew members crowding in to watch.

"Everyone was watching the game. I joked with my husband, 'whose driving the ship?'" said Christa Liczbinski, 37, from Frankfurt. Most of the British, Swiss, Scandinavian, French and American passengers had little interest and drifted to bed.

Five hours had passed since they left Piraeus and it was going to be a long night. There were to be six stops in the Cyclades islands before they reached their destination, the island of Lipsi, near the Turkish coast.

By 10pm the ferry was approaching Paros, the source of the pure white marble of the Venus de Milo, as those skimming guide books in the dim cabin lights would have read.

The captain entered the bar and started arguing with a crewman over tuning the television, according to some witnesses. Others said there was no one on the bridge.

Splintering
It happened at 10.07pm. A deafening crunch that filled the ferry. Those on the right hand side could hear splintering and cracking. The jolt reverberated through floorboards and within seconds the ship was beginning to tilt.

"We were just settling down to sleep when there was this tremendous shake. It was so loud I'm sure everyone heard it," Marianne Richards, 47, a chiropractor from Oxfordshire, said last night.

She and her husband Stephen, a van driver, were on their honeymoon. "We threw on a shirt and jeans and staggered into the hallway to see what was happening."

Two miles from Paros, the Express Samina had smashed into the Portes islet, a large rocky outcrop which is marked on maritime charts and has a navigation light. Not in living memory had a vessel done such a thing.

"You have to be blind not to see it," said Andreas Sirigos, the coastguard chief in Athens.

Chaos erupted as passengers running from cabins collided with those thronging the corridors. There seemed no obvious place to run.

One man appeared with a lifevest and a cry went up for more. "But no one could tell us where to find them, it was a babble of different languages. Everybody was screaming," said Mrs Richards.

Pushing turned to shoving as panic set in. "Nobody told us to do anything. They were just yelling and pushing. I thought we were going to die the whole time," said Heidi Hart, 26, an accountant from Seattle.

Families became separated. Emil Popper, 34, a company director from Cardiff, said: "Basically it was chaos and mayhem at the back of the ship. There was no organisation."

A crewman later disputed these accounts and insisted there was an orderly evacuation. Within minutes the ship was listing and people were flung to the floor.

Built in 1966, the Express Samina was one of the oldest ferries in the Greek domestic fleet and has operated in the Aegean since the mid 80s.

Sold to Minoan Flying Dolphins/Hellas Ferries for $2.25m a very low price for a vessel her size, she had been refurbished and was officially classified as seaworthy.

'Grime bucket'
But for a number of years Greek Island Hopping magazine has been warning readers against using it, saying it was due for replacement. "This dreadful boat is arguably the worst Greek ferry afloat. A large grime bucket with a reputation for running late, [it] is the sister of the equally notorious Naias II ... For most of the time she has shuddered along: not because of an excess of engine vibration, but rather with the collective disgust of her passengers thanks to the conditions on board: she is definitely a boat to be avoided."

A 1998 survey of 30 European ferries in the German ADAC Motorwelt magazine ranked the Naias II last.

As the ship listed further, suitcases, cutlery and other objects started falling on people's heads. Some of the very old and young were stranded as a scramble started for the upper side.

Cracking sounds continued and it became obvious the ship was breaking up and sinking.

"The ship's left side was touching the sea and it turned into a slide. One after the other, we fell into the sea," said one woman.

Mrs Richards clung to a railing and her husband clung to her. "I could feel my hands slipping," she said.

She saw an elderly woman cradling an infant and started to pray out loud: "God please save my husband and I, and everyone else, we don't deserve to die."

Several passengers reported recalling scenes from the film Titanic.

Thirteen minutes after impact the rescue authorities in Piraeus were notified. A Greek coastguard official died of a heart attack on hearing the news.

At 10.52 the ship slid under water. "It went with a great whoosh," said Mrs Richards.

Many of the young and old were too afraid to jump into the water. Zoe Kolida said the ship fell apart as it sank. "There were people hanging from the railings. Children were crying and old people were screaming. I jumped in and looked back after about 50 metres and the ship was gone."

A small flotilla of fishing boats from Paros and patrolling British warships arrived. But rescuers and survivors were hampered by strong winds.

A flare went up, illuminating the survivors in a ghostly light. Waves washed over them as they cried out to the rescuers.

"I was trying, I was swimming. But I was wearing shoes and pyjamas. I started to get cold, but, thankfully, the water was warm," said one woman. "We kept swallowing water and we said, 'This will be our tomb'."

All night long the rescuers combed, picking up an estimated 443 people. By dawn dazed survivors, including 14 Britons, wrapped in blankets, wandered past empty bars and restaurants. Paros became a disaster area. Sixty two corpses had been found and more were expected.

The Greek government has ordered a criminal investigation.