Tugboat Poseidon under Piraeus registry number 1455, owned by Ioannou Morfeta by 50% and Konstantinos Vetsiotis by the other 50%, both residents of Patra. The vessel captained by Leonidas Koutsoukos resident of Patra had sailed from the port of Piraeus at 15.00 on the 31st of August in 1963 with a destination of Patra. Around 23.00 the same day she passed the Corinth canal and continued sailing the gulf of Corinth with a little rough sea. However at 05.00 of the 1st of September 1963 as the vessel was cruising the area of Xylokastro approximately 3 miles from its shores, the engineer Odysseus Vasiliou noticed water being shooting out in the engine room. The captain was notified immediately and in order to prevent adverse developments he turned towards the shore and ran aground the vessel at Pefkias in Xylokastro. The water had reached the aft deck and the engine stopped working. The crew abandoned the vessel and boarded the small life raft and was safely transferred to shore. After further efforts using pumps from the shore the water was drained and a small crack was noticed on the port side. Rapid setting cement was used to patch up the crack. The ancor was then dropped and used to detach the vessel around 100 meters from the shore and waited further out at sea for another tugboat to arrive and tow her to Patras. However at 01.30 on the 3rd of September of 1963 water started to enter the vessel and she sank within 10 minutes.

Source: Christos Ntounis, Shipwrecks in the Greek Seas, 1951-2000, Finatec.

We would like to thank Mr. Aris Bilalis for his help in identifying the wreck.

Our team first contacted VAssilis in 2019 who first dived this wreck and we expressed our interest to dive the wreck soon. Indeed, this was planned, but covid-19 and other commitments at the time prevented our team from visiting Xylokastro and diving this recently discovered wreck. Finally in 2022 after re-coordinating with Vassilis we scheduled a dive for Saturday November the 5th. 

The wreck today is located quite far from the coast of Xylokastro and sits upright on a sandy bottom at a maximum depth of 47 meters. Its bow facing Northeast is at 47 meters, while its stern is at 46 meters. The length of the ship is estimated to be 18 meters from bow to stern. We arrived at the dive site and noticed a light surface current and immediately after finding the wreck on the sonar and setting the dive line we commenced our dive. Once we arrived at the wreck, the line had dropped amidship, so we headed towards the bow to document and explore the entire wreck from bow to stern. There is no obvious crack or hole in the ship’s hull or superstructure that would indicate a collision or other damage that could possibly cause the rapid inflow of water, at least in the parts visible to us that are not covered by the sandy bottom such as the ships reef. There were quite a few pieces of fishing nets and lines, particularly in the midship area on both the starboard and port sides, but the general condition of the ship is excellent considering the 58 years she has been at the bottom. In the middle of the vessel is the engine room and a small chimney rises on top of it. The ship’s rudder is not in place, it was seen by Vassilis lying on the bottom a few meters from the wreck. We found a tire on the stern of the boat and there is also another tire lying on the sea bottom on the port side between midship and the bow not far from the wreck. In total our bottom time at the wreck exceeded 30 minutes exploring and enjoying the dive before we began the necessary decompression and return to the surface. Visibility was moderate with a small current both on the surface and on the wreck.