What trucks are look like 40 years after a ferry shipwreck in the Mediterranean.
The Swedish ferry Zenobia was built in 1979, but after just one year, capsized and sank
in the Mediterranean Sea, near Cyprus! For 40 years it has been lying on the seabed,
on its left side, at a depth of 40 meters and is considered one of the best places for diving!
What happened on the first voyage that led to the flooding of the ferry?
The ship was heading to Syria and transported more than 100 trucks on its
3 decks, fully loaded with trailers with goods for sale in the Middle East market.
Strait after the Gibraltar left behind, the captain drew attention to steering problems.
To carry out a full-scale diagnosis, they had to drop anchor near Greece.
It turned out that for a still unknown reason, there was too much water in the ballast tanks
and because that, there were inaccuracies in the steering.
It would seem that after pumping the excess ballast out, the ferry should
go to its main course and could sail in normal mode. Before the last step to Syria, there was
a planned stop off the coast of Cyprus, where troubles with incorrect ballast appeared again.
This time, the matter turned out to be more serious, because the computer decided that
the captain had made a mistake and began to pump excess water into the ballast tanks!
The next day, the ferry was towed from the port of Larnaca and anchored at 1.5 kilometres
from the coast. The port administration
simply tried to be proactive and removed the problem ship from the port area.
For several days, the ferry crew could not solve this problem, and the pumps
filled the tanks without stopping, so the vessel's inclination degree reached 45 degrees.
The captain's request to tow the ferry to the port was rejected,
for obvious reasons. If the crew can't deal with their own ship, then nobody can!
After another 2 days, when the degree of inclination reached a critical point,
the last members of the crew were evacuated
from the ferry. A few hours later, the ship capsized and sank in the Gulf of Larnaca.
The ferry lies on its left side on an almost flat cushion of sand and stones.
The seabed is at a depth of 42 m and the upper part of the wreck
is approximately 16 meters below the surface of the water.
In this place, visibility is quite good, which is up to 50 m,
and the water temperature is excellent, which ranges from 16 degrees in winter
to 27 degrees in summer! Now you understand why divers love this place so much.
The shipwreck with no victims, well, if we not talking about
$200 million! Also add the cost of a brand-new ferry here!
As always, it was not without conspiracy, some believed that
it was due to the intervention of British and Israel intelligence, which deliberately
sabotaged one of the deals in the Middle East in order to minimise possible damage to Israel.
Believe it or not, there were no insurance payments for this incident,
as well as a report with the official version of what was happening!