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Credit: Matthias Harbers, Flickr.

In 1966 British seamen went on strike in a dispute over increased working hours. Shipping companies wanted to increase the standard working week from 40 hours to 56 hours. As a result of this strike many liners and cruise ships were stuck in port for the duration of the dispute.

Credit: N Nine, Flickr

NAVARINO was the former, stately GRIPSHOLM (2) of the Amerikalinjen . In 1975 the ship was sold to M. Kagegoris in Piraeus. Renamed TSCS* NAVARINO. In connection with a later sale the boat was docked at the Hellenic Shipyard in Skaramanga, just west of Piraeus. The docking went crazy. The boat slid over to starboard and lay against the dock embankment. The entire crew was about to capsize, but then the seabed gave way and the list stopped at 45 degrees. As the dock sank into the seabed the list decreased to 7 degrees, although it took a few months. The boat was filled with water from bow to stern. The water level was above the cylinder heads of the main engines.

The salvage negotiations were reportedly very tough. Lasse Landelius and Kjell Smitterberg and others pulled a heavy load. We (Neptunbolaget) were finally assigned to salvage the boat and the dock. Salvage leaders were Johan Mörk (Röda's salvaging legend), Lasse Landelius (of course), Kjell Smitterberg (famous captain of Brosröm's passenger ships). Salvage technician was Per Eliasson (chief in Gothenburg). Per was the man who could make the impossible possible. He was a problem solver of great proportions. As stability manager we had PeO, a shipbuilder stationed in London. We were able to borrow the boat's former chief Alf from Broström. His expertise was invaluable. The rest of the people were brought in from the tugboats in Gothenburg. Lasse Hellström and I came from Malmö. We were supposed to work together with a Greek salvage company. It is possible that it was a requirement. Well, we saw them sometimes. Their salvage boat was sometimes at the quay, and we had lunch there on board. It was an interesting older boat, a bit reminiscent of TURMOIL (the one that tried to save the Flying Enterprise).

A list of 7 degrees doesn't sound like much, but dragging 250 kg heavy Bibo 5s. Thick electrical cables and lots of bilge hoses in oil slick passages and ladders etc. is tiring. Luckily we had two "cranes" with us, Torbjörn Fhager from Donsö and Sivert Corneliusson from Öckerö. Both were raised in trawlers. They both had extraordinary vocal resources. When Sivert roared, the entire yard was emptied of Greeks. Our diver Karl-Otto from Hönö was more like a stump grinder. He could lift a Bibo 5. It was also fun to see the Greeks' reaction when Kjell Smitterberg, wearing work overalls, crawled around and sounded tanks. They didn't want to believe that he was the boat's former commander. The Greek chief visited us on one occasion. He was very elegant in his uniform. It was on a par with a South American admiral's uniform. The salvage work went well, eventually Navarino floated and was towed out of the dock and moored at the quay. Then work began on the dock, which was damaged. After just under a week, we also had the dock afloat. Lasse Landelius had to go home a few days before the rest of us due to an accident in Lake Mälaren.

When everything was ready and approved by the client, Kjell invited some serious splashers to the hotel bar. The Greek officers were also there, of course. Their expressions were priceless when Sivert folded the Greek salvage manager like a pocket knife and stuffed him into an ice cream box. Fear of authorities did not affect the crane from Öckerö. The work took place during February and March 1982. In addition to this, of course, there was a long planning process.

* Guess what TSCS stands for. We wondered that anyway. Twin Screw Cruising Ship - they must be nice

Text by: Douglas Tufvesson

After a catastrophic fire on march 23rd, 1994 while docked in Piraeus the Epirotiki cruise ship SS Pallas Athena (ex French Line's SS Flandre) was withdrawn from service and the nearly 42 year old burnt hull of the ship was towed to Aliaga, Turkey for scrapping on Christmas Day, 1994. By 1994 only two French Line ships were remaining: The Epirotikis SS Pallas Athena (ex Flandre) and the NCL's classic Norway (ex France) which was scrapped at Alang, India after a massive boiler explosion resulting in 7 deaths in 2003. The SS Flandre was the first French Line ship bulit after World War 2. With a rich history of 40 years, 3 owners and 4 names she's also an icon of both crusing in the Carribean and the Mediterranean aswell as transatlantic crossings. Her story may hopefully be never forgotten.

Couldnt find much info on this picture because the pinterest and facebook post didnt say much about it

Wikimedia Commons description:

The cruise ship Flandre, 1967. This photograph was certainly taken on the Saint Lawrence River, between Quebec City and Montreal, probably on en:Lake Saint Pierre considering the width of the river.

Correct me if i'm wrong. The picture was taken around april 1937 during her world cruise shortly after the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to pedestriants.

Image from the wikipedia arcitle of the Oslofjord

You can notice that the stern nameplate was removed, i'm not really sure if this name plate from the stern (2nd pic) was taken when she was renamed blue lady or removed during a refit, but its is on sale can be purchased for 7,800£ per letter.

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Photo description: The photo was taken in her port of registry, Gdynia on her Maiden and last passanger carrying voyage, she would never return home.

The ship left Buenos Aires on the 24th of August on the return leg of its maiden passenger voyage and was near Pernambuco in Brazil, when World War II broke out. Initially the ship stayed at the Brazilian port for 40 days with the passengers having disembarked in Brazil rather than return to Poland. Then the essentially stateless ship sailed with her crew of 264. There were 20 women and 14 boy apprentices from a Polish sea school, aged between 16 and 18, among the party.[3] After wandering the Atlantic for three weeks the ship diverted to Southampton in the UK.[4]

As a transatlantic liner she made only one transatlantic voyage, never returning to her home port of Gdynia.

During the war the ship was rebuilt in Britain to become a troop transport. The ship was used to transport the West Nova Scotia Regiment from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to the U.K., embarking on 21 December 1939, sailing the next day and arriving in Gourock on the river Clyde, Scotland on the 29 Dec 1939.[5]

The ship was used during the Norwegian Campaign, in the area around Narvik. On 14 May 1940 she sailed from Tjeldsundet transporting British troops to Bodø.[6] Just before midnight German dive bombers attacked the ship three times in the middle of the Vestfjorden, setting the ship on fire, exploding ammunition, and killing several army officers and men.[6] One of the escorts, the destroyer HMS Wolverine, took off 700 survivors from the ship, while the other escort, the sloop HMS Stork, stood on guard and drove off other German aircraft, then took off the remaining survivors.[6] Both escorts, loaded with survivors, sailed for Harstad.

The abandoned Chrobry was sunk by aircraft from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal on 16 May.[6] A considerable amount of equipment went down with the ship.[6]

October 21, 1988, the Epirotiki cruise ship Jupiter sank a few meters outside the port of Piraeus.

The ship was full of school children and their teachers from the United Kingdom when it sank after colliding with a car carrier. There were 415 students and 60 teachers from 30 different British schools on board the cruise ship.

The ship was hit just one mile off the port of Piraeus by the ship Adige (7th pic) belonging to Grimaldi Siosa .

Photos of the ship sinking as seen from Piraeus. The photos are from survivors of the shipwreck.The lifeboats were unusable. Most of the passengers and crew were transferred to smaller boats, as the water level rose to the upper decks, but 25 children rose to the surface of the sea as the ship sank and were immediately collected. The sinking resulted in the death of 4 people. In fact, 2 of the dead were from the crew. They were two oilmen, Messrs. Golematis and Psomas. In this link you will find excerpts from a book written about the accident. Names are mentioned both from the crew and from the people who helped in the rescue, among whom was the then harbormaster of Piraeus, Admiral (retd.) Manolis Peloponnese L.S.

who died in 2014 at the age of 74 a few days after the 26th anniversary of the shipwreckthe Jupiter, sank just 40 minutes after impact outside the port of Piraeus. Children from 15 schools, including TP Riley from Bloxwich, Streetly from Brownhills just at the start of the eight-day cruise, were faced with the worst nightmare of their lives.A passenger on the Jupiter was in the dining room when the accident happened. He described the scene. “There was a big black thing stuck to one side of the ship – all the walls were pulled back…like a sardine can thing – and the water was coming in hard.”A Bloxwich teacher, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Streetly and two Greek sailors were also reported to have died. The injured, 64 people, including 30 schoolchildren, were hospitalised with minor injuries and the shock from the accident was great.

In a later study, twenty-five girls who survived the Jupiter sinking were compared to three other groups of girls, a total of 71, some from another school, 46 girls from the same school, who did not want to go on the cruise, and 13 girls who were in a group that almost wanted to go but could not get tickets. All of the children participated in a fear-control program, the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale from the Birleson Depression Inventory. The children who survived did not become more fearful overall. Instead, they developed significantly greater fears of stimuli associated with the traumatic event.Susan Golding: "I slipped into the water and swam towards a large boat about 50 metres away. As the boat went down I saw a hand with a white handkerchief moving up and down in the water. I had to swim quickly or the current would take me under. The tugboat crew who were near me shouted 'swim faster'..."

Carol Gill: “ The water was warm… I turned to look at the ship. It had come to a vertical position and sank in less than two minutes after I had dived into the sea. The sea current was pulling me down. I was struggling to stay on the surface.” Nearby was an Indian girl, waving her arms and who did not know how to swim. The sea took us both down… quite deep… I tried to find her in the sea but I could not open it because of the oils in the water.”

Notes:

Description and pictures a greek website

The 4th pic is a re-creation of the sinking by me

I edited the desc a bit because the translation was a bit wrong

Photograph taken by Mrs Barbara Butler.