Event Date: August 21,1988
Bruise: Ship Sunk
Location: Off Piraeus Greece
Ship: Jupiter
Line: Epirotiki Line
Registry: Greece
Built: 1961
Length: 413 Feet
Tonnage: 6,300 Ton
Details:
Cruise Ship Jupiter Sunk
Ship Rammed By Cargo Ship Off Greek Coast
October 21,1988
A ship filled with school children and their teachers from the United Kindom sunk after being rammed by a car carrier cargo ship. There were 415 students and 60 teachers from 30 different British schools aboard the cruise ship.
The ship was struck a mile off shore by car carrier Adige from the Grimaldi Siosa Line.
Lifeboats were unusable due to list. Most passengers and crew transferred to small craft as water level came up to upper decks, but 25 children floated off when ship sank and were immediately picked up. 4 fatalities - one crewmember had a heart attack, another struck his head on a rescue tugboat, and two were missing."
The Jupiter went down in, astonishingly, just 40 minutes after being rammed by a massive tanker outside the Greek harbour of Piraeus. Children from 15 schools, including T P Riley at Bloxwich, and Streetly and Brownhills comprehensives, at the beginning of an eight day cruise, found themselves in everyone's worst nightmare.
One passenger on the Jupiter was in the dining room when the accident took place. She described the scene. "there was a big black thing sticking into the side of the ship - the walls all peeled back like a sardine can - and water spraying ..."
A Bloxwich teacher, a 14 year old girl pupil from Streetly and two Greek seamen died. 'The injured, 64 people, including 30 students, were hospitalized with slight injuries and shock.
In a later study, twenty-five girls who survived the sinking of the cruise ship 'Jupiter' were compared with three other groups of girls–71 controls from a separate school; 46 girls in the same school who had not wanted to go on the cruise; and 13 girls who were in a 'near miss' group in that they wanted to go but did not get places.
All completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (revised form), the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Birleson Depression Inventory. Survivors did not become generally more fearful. Rather, they developed significantly greater fears to stimuli related to the traumatic event.
The MS Jupiter had previously been the MS Moledet. She was sold in 1970 to the Greek Epirotiki Line, which later became Royal Olympia Cruises.
Jupiter was built as the Moledet of Zim Lines in 1961. She was sold in 1970 to Epirotiki Line and was owned by Epirotiki Line until she sunk.
