Sinking of the SS Tanais

John Blumer and Co Ltd of Sunderland, England built the ship as Holywood for William France, Fenwick and Company of London. She was launched on 14 December 1906 and completed in January 1907. She was a cargo steamship, and France, Fenwick operated her in the tramp trade. A Greek shipowner, Stefanos Synodinos, bought her in 1935, renamed her Tanais after the ancient Greek city of Tanais in the Don delta and registered her in Piraeus. On 26 May 1941 during the Battle of Crete, the Luftwaffe sank Tanais in Souda Bay. She was raised, repaired and taken over by (MMR), a company controlled by the German government that operated merchant ships in the Mediterranean theatre of the war. MMR used her to carry cargo and people between the Aegean Islands and Greek mainland. ==Sinking==

On late 8 or early 9 June 1944 Tanais, escorted by the submarine hunter UJ 2142 and guard ships GK 05 and GK 06, sailed from Heraklion bound for Piraeus. In her holds were three groups of prisoners: about 265 Jews deported from Chania who had been rounded up a few days before, up to 400 Cretan gentiles linked with the Cretan resistance, and between 100 and 300 pro-Badoglio Italian prisoners of war who had been arrested after the Armistice of Cassibile. On the morning of 9 June, the Royal Navy submarine sighted Tanais northwest of the islet of Dia at . Vivid fired a spread of four torpedoes at a range of . Two hit Tanais, sinking her in just 12 seconds. The number of people who died in the sinking is unknown, but it is believed to include most of the people aboard. One source mentions only 14 people survived; another puts the total of those rescued at 51. ==See also==