Diving the Oceanos - Part I
Posted By Philip G Van Rensburg on 5 March 2004
On the morning of July 12, 1952, Forges Chantiers de la Gironde launched the last of four sister ships in Bordeaux, France, under the name of Jean Laborde. The ship underwent several name changes including Mykinai, Ancona, Eastern Princess, and finally, in 1976, under the ownership of Pontos Nav SA, she was registered in Piraeus, Greece, under the name of Oceanos.
Originally built as a passenger/cargo vessel, the Oceanos underwent massive reconstruction by the time she came to operate as a cruise liner for Epirotiki Lines of Greece. The success of the 1988 cruise season in South Africa was motivation for her return in 1991 on an eight-month charter for TFC Tours of Johannesburg.
En route to Durban, the Oceanos set out from the port of East London on Saturday, August 3, 1991, into 40-knot winds and nine-metre swells. It has been reported that the ship was in a state of neglected maintenance with loose hull plates and an unfitted ventilation pipe. It had also had several sewerage-holding tank non-return valves stripped for repairs, following problems with bilge water rising through showers and toilets on a recent trip to Mozambique. The unfitted ventilation pipe was said to have left a 10cm hole in the watertight bulkhead between the generator and the sewerage tank.
Reports indicate that at around 21:30 off the Wild Coast of the Transkei,
the Oceanos lost her power following an explosion in the engine room. The
ship's engineer reported to Captain Yiannis Avranias that water was entering
the hull and flooding the generator room. The generators had been shorted
and the supply of power to the engines had been severed.
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