Costa Concordia

Cruise captain 'committed errors', say ship's owners

The capsize of the Costa Concordia set me thinking of Greek ferries and cruise ships.

On my first trip to Greece in 1981 I was travelling on a small ferry (she may have been the Ios, and if I recall correctly she was too small to have a car deck).  We were going from Paros to Santorini.  En route I remember seeing a stricken ship, one end pointing up out of the sea.  The stricken ship looked like the double of the ship I was travelling on.

Poseidon Express

HALF-SUNK PASSENGER SHIP TO BE REFLOATED BY GREEK COAST GUARD

I travelled on the Poseidon Express - one of the best ferries of her day.  In April 1996 she hit rocks near Paros.  I was on a ferry that valled in at Paros when The Poseidon Express was still lying on her side in the harbour.

Golden Vergina  / Express Samina

http://www.greekislandhopping.com/Updates/updatepages/u_disaster.html

The Express Samina, formerly the Golden Vergina, sank after hitting a rock near Paros in 2000.  82 passengers died.  I had travelled on the ship a year or so earlier (going from Samos to Naxos), when she was called the Golden Vergina. 

Sea Diamond

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond

The Sea Diamond, a cruise ship, sank in 2007 after running aground near Santorini. I remember travelling on one of the Blue Star ferries soon afterwards, siiting in a loune at night half watching the news on TV.  The news was about the sinking of the Sea Diamond.  If I understood the Greek correctly, the gferry I was travelling on had been involved in the rescue.