On 5 April 2007, at around 16:00
EEST (13:00
UTC) the ship ran aground on a well-marked within the
caldera of the Greek island of
Santorini, began taking on water, and listed up to 12 degrees to starboard before her watertight doors were reportedly closed (a report which was later refuted when the wreck was examined). The 1,153 passengers, mostly Americans and 60 Canadians, were initially all reported to be safely evacuated in three-and-a-half hours, with four injuries. Some passengers, including a group of 77 students from
Paisley Magnet School in
North Carolina, were evacuated from the car ramp through the former car deck onto boats, but some passengers had to climb down rope ladders from the higher decks. The ship was towed off the rocks, and her list stabilized. Later, it was reported that two French passengers were missing.
caldera, the final resting place
(marked) of
Sea Diamond The large amount of water taken on board led to the ship sinking shortly before 7:00 EEST on 6 April 2007, only a few hundred metres from the shore. Video footage shows that, toward the end, the ship completely capsized before settling
stern first onto the sea floor. It was later reported that the tip of the
bulbous bow was only 62 metres (203 feet) below sea level, but the
stern was in water up to 180 metres (590 feet) deep. It is feared that the wreck would soon slide deeper and sink into the submerged caldera of the
volcanic island. It has been speculated that the deep, almost vertical shore of the bathtub-like caldera made it impossible to
beach the ship and save her from becoming a total loss.
Missing Two French citizens, Jean Christophe Allain, aged 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, were listed as missing. Allain's wife said her cabin filled with water when the ship struck rocks and that she narrowly escaped. She was not sure whether her husband and daughter made it out, because the events happened so suddenly. Her son was on deck at the time and was evacuated safely. The family were accommodated in cabin 2014, The black box containing the recordings of the conversations before the crash was discovered on 15 April, while the bodies of the two missing persons were never found. s automatically released in water, now covered with oil slicks from the
Sea Diamond On 13 April 2007, it was reported that investigators using a
remotely controlled submarine found the ship's data recorder (
VDR). In a struggle to protect the data, they secured it in a special sterilized
bin and the authorities were to have transferred it to the
United States in order to reveal the saved
data, an action that only the manufacturer of the VDR can perform. The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said the recorder could reveal details of the sinking of the ship which could be used in the prosecution of crew members. Investigations carried out by the defense team of the Master of the Vessel and Louis Cruise Lines, after a lawsuit had been filed against them, have included a new
hydrographic survey of the area of the accident in Santorini. This survey was carried out by
Akti Engineering, and discovered discrepancies between the actual mapping of the sea area and the official charts used by the
Sea Diamond (and all other vessels) at the time of the accident. The detailed survey claimed that the reef, which the
Sea Diamond struck is, in fact, lying at from shore and not at a distance of , as is incorrectly marked on the nautical chart. The official chart also shows the depth of the water at the area of impact varying from , whilst the recent survey shows that it is only . The findings obtained by Akti Engineering have since been passed on to the
Hellenic Hydrographic Office of the
Hellenic Navy and other responsible authorities, with the aim that the necessary changes to maritime charts should be made and similar accidents to be prevented. but a later study confirmed the findings of Akti. A Greek scuba diver gathering evidence for a judicial investigation of the
Sea Diamond shipwreck died in October 2007 from
decompression sickness after ascending too quickly.
Aftermath In order to avoid an
oil spill, plans were made to recover some of fuel from the ship's tanks. As of 20 September 2007, fuel had started to leak into other parts of the ship, but not yet into the surrounding environment. In June 2009, some of the fuel was pumped off the wreck. On 14 May 2007, it was announced that Louis Cruise Lines had bought M/S
Silja Opera (renaming it M/S
Cristal) to replace the
Sea Diamond. On 19 June 2007, the owners, operator and captain of the
Sea Diamond cruise ship were fined €1.17 million for causing
marine pollution. On 21 August 2007, a lawsuit was filed in
United States federal court on behalf of the passengers who were aboard the ship when she sank. After six years in the courts, the
Sea Diamond captain and an insurance company employee were given 12- and 8-year jail sentences, respectively.
Raising . On the right can be seen the fuel containment boom of the
Sea Diamond. After the sinking, there was much demand from the residents of Santorini for the wreck to be raised and removed. Further questions were posed but never answered as to why the ship was moved to deeper water to be allowed to sink in the first place. In May 2011, the Greek government claimed that removing the
Sea Diamond would be "too costly" and said that the 150-million-euro cost of raising the ship should be the responsibility of the insurers and company that owned the ship. The latter two have no plans to raise the ship, however. In October 2017 the
Merchant Marine Ministry of Greece announced the wreck will be raised, out of environmental and navigational concerns. It is an
artificial reef for now. == Images from
Birka Princess ==