At least 383 people died at the sinking of Himara in 1947 off Evia island. Public Domain
The sinking of the Greek passenger steamer Himara near South Evia on January 19, 1947, claimed at least 383 lives and has gone down in history as the “Greek Titanic.”
Previously named Hertha, the vessel was handed over to Greece from Germany following WWII as part of war reparations.
The Himara departed Thessaloniki at 8:30 a.m. on January 18, 1947, carrying 544 passengers and 86 crew members, bound for the Athenian port of Piraeus. Amid the civil war raging in Greece at the time, sea travel was considered the safest option for the thousands who needed to journey between the country’s two largest cities.
“Greek Titanic” struck a rocky islet off Evia
In the early hours of January 19, while navigating the southern coast of Evia through thick fog, the ship suddenly collided with a rocky islet between the towns of Stira and Agia Marina.
The impact tore open the Himara’s hull, allowing water to gush in rapidly and leaving the vessel powerless against the sea. Although the ship was only one nautical mile from Agia Marina and took at least ninety minutes to sink, the freezing water and strong currents claimed the lives of 383 passengers and crew.
The marine tragedy made headlines in all the Greek newspapers of the day. Passengers and crew members contributed their version of events to news outlets.
Among the victims were many women and children, as well as political prisoners and their police escorts. According to other versions of the tragedy, the ship may have hit a mine placed there during wartime or could even have been sunk by an explosion caused by saboteurs.
The captain as well as the first mate who was on duty at the time both survived the sinking of the ship. In the trial which followed, they were sentenced to only fifteen and twenty months imprisonment, respectively, for their role in the incident.
Greece has a long and rich maritime history, but it has also been the scene of some of the worst naval disasters in history.
On December 8, 1966, a ferry on the Chania-Piraeus route sank off the rocky islet of Falkonera. More than two hundred people were killed in one of the worst naval disasters in modern Greek history.
Moreover, on June 16, 2023, a migrant boat sank off the coast of Greece, killing an estimated 300 people. The boat was carrying over 500 people, many of whom were fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. This tragedy is regarded as one of the deadliest in the history of modern migration.
