OCEANOS cruise vessel

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OCEANOS cruise vessel

Post by shipstamps » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:28 pm



Built as a passenger- cargo vessel under yard No 225 by Chantiers de la Gironde, Bordeaux for Compagnie des Messagers Maritimes, Marseilles.
12 July 1952 launched under the name JEAN LABORDE, she was christened by Mrs. Gaston Defferre, three sisters.
Tonnage 10.902 gross, 5.933 net, 6.289 dwt. Dim. 150.11 x 19.63 x 7.46m. (draught).
Powered by two B&W10-cyl. 2SA oil engines, manufactured by Forges & at du Creusot, Chalon, 13.205 hp (9847kW), twin shafts, speed 17 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 88 first, 112 tourist and 296 third class passengers, crew 144.
19 July 1953 delivered to owners.

After delivery used in the service from France to the Indian Ocean and Africa.
16 June 1956 several cracks were discovered in her engines at Tamatave, Madagascar, her passengers on board disembarked and were flown by plane to La Reunion and Mauritius.
04 July, after temporary repairs she left Tamatave bound for Marseilles.
04 August 1970 she took on board the sick Captain of the tanker GEORGIOS V and landed him in Cape Town.
10 August 1970 on board of the GEORGIOS V a boiler exploded and 10 men got burns, medical assistance by radio was supplied by the JEAN LABORDE, and the surgeon on board the JEAN LABORDE boarded the vessel after she arrived on the scene. He stayed till 24 August on board, and boarded the JEAN LABORDE again in Walvis Bay.

03 December 1970 sold to K. Efthymiades, Piraeus. Greece, and renamed MYKINAI.
Used in the service from Piraeus to Crete.
1971 Renamed in ANCONA.
A planned conversion to a car ferry in 1973/74 under the name BRINDISI EXPRESS did not take place.
26 March 1972 till December 1973 used in the service between Patras to Ancona.
1974 Transferred to Helite Hellenic Italian Lines SA, Panama, a subsidiary of Efthymiades, renamed EASTERN PRINCESS.
September 1974 sailed from Piraeus for the Far East, then in the Singapore to Australia service.
1976 Sold to Pontos Naviera SA, Panama (Epirotiki Cruise Liners an other Efthymiades subsidiary), renamed OCEANOS.
Refitted in a cruise vessel for operation in the Mediterranean. Tonnage 7.554 grt.
Accommodation for 540 passengers.
1976 till 1982 Chartered by Star Lauro.
1981 Sold to Helenic Co. for Sea & Waterways SA, Piraeus (Epirotiki.)
1982 In service by the Epirotiki Cruise Lines.

1991 Chartered by TFC Tours, Johannesburg, South Africa.
03 Augustus sailed from East London to Durban with on board 361 passengers and 184 crew.
On 4 August 2 miles off Coffee Bay she got an explosion in the engine room, and stopped dead in the water during stormy weather.
In the explosion were hull plates fractured on the starboard side flooding the generator room.
Just a week earlier a ventilation pipe between the generator room and the sewerage holding tank had been removed to make repairs to defective valves in the sewerage tank. The ventilation pipe was not reinstalled leaving a 4” hole in the bulkhead. Thus despite the closing of all watertights doors, the water began flooding the sewerage tank. Since the valves on the sewerage tank had been stripped for repair, it was now not possible to close them.
The flooding waters would now enter the ship via was-basins, toilets, showers and waste outlets and flow in cabins and passages, deck by deck, inevitably dragging her bow down.
Five of the ships eight lifeboats got away, most not loaded to capacity. Among those who had left were the wife and child of the ship’s captain Yiannis Avranas, and many of the crew.

More as 200 people remained on board. The other 3 lifeboats either got away empty or proved unusable.
Lifeboat passengers were picked up by the Panamanian tanker GREAT NANCY rescued 176, the Dutch container vessel NEDLLOYD MAURITIUS rescued 51, Polish cargo vessel KASZUBY II rescued 106 and the Cyprus reefer vessel REEFER DUCHESS rescued 8.
The Norwegian trawler ANEK attempted to rescue the passengers of one lifeboat, but was able to take on 3 people in the raging seas. Rescue helicopters winched up 226 people. Capt. Avranas and 3 crewmembers were among the seven people to board the first helicopter. (not what you expect from a captain to leave his vessel before all people has been rescued.)
Rescuers were able to cast one of the ship’s dinghies into the sea and to transport about 40 people to a lifeboat set out by NEDLLOYD MAURITIUS. One person drifted away from the ship while trying to swim to the NEDLLOYD MAURITIUS lifeboat, and was picked up by helicopter some 6 miles south of where the ship went down.
All on board were saved, thanks mainly to the ship’s entertainers and the staff of the tour company.
The ship sank bow down in the early afternoon of 4 August. 90 minutes after the last person left the vessel.
Captain Avranas and 5 of his senior officers were found guilty of negligence in May 1992.

TRANSKEI 1994 85c sg 316, scott 301. and 85c sg MS ?

Source: Great Passenger Ships of the World by Kludas. Watercraft Philately Vol 41 page 16.
Marine News., and some web-sites.

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