# Lakonia



## brewh (May 26, 2008)

Anyone here with knowledge of the passenger ship Lakonia disaster?


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

Try this http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?37391


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

In the excellent book "The Long Silence Falls", there is an account by the RO of the 'Montcalm', one of the rescue vessels first on the scene.

David
+


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Brewh,

attached a link to a photo of said vessel in my Gallery.

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/23945/title/lakonia/cat/520

Hawkey01


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## brewh (May 26, 2008)

Thanks for the site gents and will put the 'The Long Silence Falls' on my must read list
Lew


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## Dumra (Sep 24, 2006)

This is from a recently published item on the memories of the R/O in question.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...ecalls-dramatic-rescue-50-years-ago-1.1635133


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## JoeTrieste (May 14, 2011)

Anyone interested in the Lakonia should visit this forum where survivors and rescuers alike have been reunited:

http://www.andalucia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18319

Joe


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## jg grant (Nov 22, 2007)

Hi you might like to get hold of a book called,'In Titanics Shadow,' by David L. Williams. ISBN978 0 7524 7122 8. This book records many more merchant ships lost at sea with a much higher casualty count than Titanic. You will find details of the Laconia in there. Not a comfortable read. Regards Ronnie.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Did the R/O's make it off Lakonia?


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

I sailed with a 2nd Mate who was involved in the Lakonia rescue. He was in charge of a lifeboat and had to remonstrate with a seaman who tried to remove a watch from a corpse. It takes all sorts.

John T


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## duquesa (Aug 31, 2006)

trotterdotpom said:


> I sailed with a 2nd Mate who was involved in the Lakonia rescue. He was in charge of a lifeboat and had to remonstrate with a seaman who tried to remove a watch from a corpse. It takes all sorts.
> 
> John T


I was friendly with one of the mates on the Montcalm at the time. Do you recall his name?


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

duquesa said:


> I was friendly with one of the mates on the Montcalm at the time. Do you recall his name?


This person worked for Common Bros, I don't know what ship he was on at the time. However, he was a very solid person and I have no reason to doubt his story. I think I could work out his name, but don't want to publish it here.

John T


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

There was a very interesting and moving discussion of this disaster on the Adrian Chiles show on BBC Radio 5Live at 10.00 am this morning. Survivors who were children or teenagers at the time still have vivid memories, including the state of the safety equipment, firefighting equipment and lifeboats.
I expect it will be on the IPlayer or available as a podcast.

Roy.


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## RasaSayang (Nov 10, 2012)

*Hello,

as I see the thread "Lakonia" lives on - here is an interesting book with a lot of pictures about the X-mas disaster 1963.

It is in german language, published by historians from museum Bremerhaven when an exibition about the disaster started.
As many stewards from Greek Line´s "Lakonia" was from germany, some got also victims of the fire-

You can buy it direct from the museum -

http://www.historisches-museum-bremerhaven.de/die-lakonia-katastrophe

or also available from Amazon

https://www.amazon.de/Die-LAKONIA-K...66667&sr=8-1&keywords=die-lakonia-katastrophe *


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## morseman2020 (Oct 28, 2020)

There is a "story" on Wikipedia, about the disaster... 

TSMS Lakonia - Wikipedia (two sections, initial intro, and further down more info on the *Fire* .

I was a Radio Operator on *H.M.S. Centaur,* (*GKYG*)during the search and rescue, and probably spoke to many of the ships involved in picking up the bodies, which were transferred to us, to be offloaded on Christmas day in Gibraltar.
The memories of that are still with me, and blight all my Christmas enjoyments since.


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