MS Express Samina (Greek: Εξπρές Σαμίνα) was a RORO

RORO

Roll-on/roll-off ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo such as automobiles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers or railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels...

 passenger ferry built as MS Corse In 1966 at Chantiers de l'Atlantique

Chantiers de l'Atlantique

Chantiers de l'Atlantique is part of the South Korean STX Shipbuilding Group and one of the world's largest shipyards, based in Saint-Nazaire, France...

, St Nazaire, France for Compagnie Generale Transatlantique

Compagnie Générale Transatlantique

The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique , typically known overseas as the French Line, was a shipping company established during 1861 as an attempt to revive the French merchant marine, the poor state of which was indicated during the Crimean War of 1856...

 along with her sister ship MS Comte De Nice. In 1969 she was transferred to Compagnie Generale Transmediterraneenne. After six years service, the company changed its name again, to SNCM

SNCM

SNCM is a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean.Its ferries sail from Marseille, Toulon, Nice on mainland France, Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio, Ile Rousse, Propriano, and Porto Vecchio on Corsica, Porto Torres on Sardinia, Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria as well as Tunis in...

 to which she was transferred. In 1982 she sailed from France for the last time as she was sold to a Greek company, Stability Maritime, to operate their Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

-Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

-Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 route under her new name MS Golden Vergina . In 1988 she was sold to the Agapitos Bros for service in the Aegean sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 without name change under Agapitos Lines. In 1999 she was sold to Minoan Flying Dolphins, again for service in the Aegean, re-named MS Express Samina.

Disaster

In the evening on Tuesday 26 September 2000 MS Express Samina hit the Portes islets off the bay of Parikia

Parikia

Parikia is the capital and the main port of Paros island. It is one of the most typical Cycladic settlements as it is distinguished by its narrow cobbled paths, the old churches, the small shops and the houses in blue and white. Parikia is today one of the most popular and busiest spot of the...

, Paros

Paros

Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...

 and sunk near there at 23:02 resulting in the deaths of 82 people from a total of 473 passengers and 61 crew members. The fact that some of the crew did not help the passengers evacuate the sinking ferry contributed to the death toll.

The crew placed the ship on autopilot

Autopilot

An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...

 and did not have a crew member watch the ship. Even with autopilot standard practice calls for one crew member to watch the controls since the wind and currents drag the ship to a degree that cannot be compensated by the electronic systems. The crew deployed the fin stabilizers

Stabilizer (ship)

Ship stabilizers are fins mounted beneath the waterline and emerging laterally. In contemporary vessels, they may be gyroscopically controlled active fins, which have the capacity to change their angle of attack to counteract roll caused by wind or waves acting on the ship.The bilge keel is an...

 system to decrease the motions in bad weather; normally both stabilizer fins deployed, but in this case the port stabilizer fin did not deploy. This caused the ship to drift and therefore not travel in a straight line. A crew member discovered the problem and, at the last minute, tried to steer the ship to port. This action occurred too late. At 10:12 P.M. the ship struck the east face of the taller Portes pinnacle. The rocks tore a six-meter long and one-meter wide hole above the water line. After that impact, the rocks bent the stabilizer fin backwards, and the fin cut through the hull through the side, below the waterline, and next to the engine room. The water from the three-meter gash destroyed the main generators and ended electrical power. Professor David Molyneaux, a ship safety expert, said that the damage sustained by the MS Express Samina should not normally sink such a ship. The ship sank because nine of the ship's eleven watertight compartment doors were open when safety laws require ship operators to close and lock the safety doors. The water spread beyond the engine room, and due to a lack of power the operators could not remotely shut the doors. Molyneaux described the open watertight doors as the most significant aspect of the sinking.

Chronology of the sinking

At 10:15 PM, three minutes after impact, the ship listed by five degrees to port. By 10:25 PM the list increased to fourteen degrees and the six meter gash received water from the ocean. By 10:29 the ship listed by twenty-three degrees; this prevented the launching of additional lifeboats. Three of the eight lifeboats were launched. At 10:32 the ship listed by 33 degrees. By 10:50 the ship lay on its side. Since the clock on the bridge stopped at 11:02, authorities knew that the ship sank at that time. The degree of damage, the scenario, and the open space in the RORO ferry design (other vessels lack large, open spaces, so a sinking is less likely for them) led to the sinking.

Passengers were apparently unaided by the crew in evacuating, and there widespread panic among them. It was questioned later if the crew were engaged watching a televised football match at the time. Inflatable life rafts blew away in the windy conditions as soon as they were inflated, before anyone could board them; only four of the ship's eight solid lifeboats were able to be launched before the ship's list prevented further launches. Some passengers also jumped from the ship, while ten bodies were found still trapped in the hull.

Aftermath

After the disaster, ferries are retired after thirty instead of thirty-five years now under Greece's new laws precipitated by the disaster. These laws have now been 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. In addition this hastened adoption of voyage recorders, the equivalent of black boxes for ships; laws required all passenger ferries to contain voyage recorders.

On 29 November 2000, Pandelis Sfinias the manager of the company Minoan Flying Dolphins committed suicide by jumping from his sixth floor office window. 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

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

 and negligence

Negligence

Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...

. The trial commenced 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 eight years and nine months for a series of misdemeanours that included abandoning ship without the captain’s permission.

The City of Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 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.

In popular media

Mayday

Mayday (TV series)

Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...

(Crash Scene Investigation) aired an episode about the disaster; it was called "Collision Course" in Canada and "Greek Ferry Disaster" and "Express Samina" in other countries. Heidi and Christine were interviewed for the Biography Channel show I Survived...

I Survived...

I Survived... is a documentary television series produced by NHNZ that airs on The Biography Channel. The series premiered on March 24, 2008 and airs new episodes Sunday nights. The show allows survivors to explain, in their own words, how they overcame life-threatening circumstances without...

, as well.

General references

• Mayday (TV series)
  Mayday (TV series)
  Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
  
  
• Adriatic and Aegean ferries - F/B GOLDEN VERGINA
• Fakta om Fartyg - M/S CORSE (Swedish)
• Wreck site - MV Express Samina

See also

• List of RORO vessel accidents
• SS Heraklion
  SS Heraklion
  The SS Heraklion was a car ferry operating the lines Piraeus - Chania and Piraeus - Irakleio between 1965 and 1966. The ship capsized and sank on 8 December 1966 in the Aegean Sea, resulting in the death of over 200 people.-Background:...
  
  
• MS Sea Diamond
  MS Sea Diamond
  MS Sea Diamond was a cruise ship operated by Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines. She was built in 1984 by Valmet, Finland for Birka Line as MS Birka Princess. The ship sank on April 5, 2007, after running aground near the Greek island of Santorini the previous day, leaving two passengers missing and...
  
  

External links

• Express Samina Memorial