MS Express Samina

MS Express Samina was a French-built RoPax ferry that began life in 1966 as the Corse, built at Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. She passed through several French owners, then was sold to a Greek company in 1982 and sailed as the Golden Vergina on an Italy, Greece and Israel route, later for Agapitos Lines in the Aegean, and from 1999 as the Express Samina for Minoan Flying Dolphins. On the night of 26 September 2000 she left Piraeus with 473 passengers and 61 crew and struck the Portes Islets rocks in the Bay of Parikia off Paros. The accident cost 81 lives and the ship was lost. The inquiry blamed crew negligence: the crew had left the ship on autopilot without a watch, and nine of her eleven watertight doors were open, which let the flooding spread. Several crew members were found criminally liable. The disaster led Greece to retire ferries after 30 years instead of 35 and hastened the adoption of voyage recorders on passenger ships.