Built as a passenger ship under yard No 12400 by Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne at Prairie-au-Duc near Nantes for Zim Israel Navigation Co. Ltd., Haifa, Israel.
19 February 1961 launched as the MOLEDET.
Tonnage 7.811gross, 2.150 dwt, dim. 415.4 x 65.3 x 19.7ft. (draught).
Powered by two 9-cyl Pielstick diesels, manufactured by the shipbuilder, 6.390bhp, one propeller, speed 17 knots.
A single class passenger ship when built, accommodation for 596 passengers, with 7 cabins who could be described as top-grade.
Summer 1961 delivered to owners.
She was built to meet the increasing demand for tourist class accommodation between Haifa and Marseilles via Italian ports.
She was the first Zim passenger liner with air-condition and stabilizers fitted in.
1970 Sold to the Epirotiki SS Nav. Co of the Greek owner George Potamianos for circa 1.2 million US dollar.
First renamed ALEXANDROS.
Fitted out at Parama, Greece as a cruiseliner with a capacity of 450 passengers.
During that time she carried for a short time the name ZEUS.
1971Renamed in JUPITER.
After the refit used as a cruise-vessel in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
21 October 1988 sailed from Piraeus bound for Rhodes with on board 480 students and teachers flown in that morning from the U.K. for a study cruise organized by the Hayward’s Heat-based School Abroad.
Outside the port of Piraeus, she came in collision with the Italian vehicle-carrier ADIGE. The JUPITER after the collision got a list over port, and after v45 minutes capsized and sank.
Two Greek crewmembers were killed during the collision, and a female student and a teacher were lost, 54 passengers were injured.
It was a luck that the collision took place just outside the port that evens the crew and passengers which had jumped overboard were saved by other vessels in the vicinity and by the lifesaving service.
The Grenadines of St Vincent 1982 15c sg 213, scott 227
Source: merchant Ships world built 1961. Register of Merchant ships completed in 1961. Modern Shipping disasters 1963-1987 by Hooke.