MV ''Jupiter'' was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-registered

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

that sank on 21 October 1988, within 40 minutes of leaving the Greek port of

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

. On board were 391

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

schoolchildren and 84 adults on a study cruise and 110 crew. The disaster claimed the lives of one pupil, one teacher and two

crew members.

The ship

''Jupiter'' was originally known as ''Moledet'' ("Fatherland") and was a passenger ship registered in the port of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

in 1961. The 7,810-tonne vessel was built for Zim (Israel Navigation Company Ltd) and sailed regular voyages around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. In September 1970, ''Moledet'' was sold to

Epirotiki Line Epirotiki was a shipping company that began in 1850. Epirotiki Line operated cruise vessels, cargo and tanker vessels. Foundation Anastassios Potamianos began his first shipping venture in 1850 transporting cargo and passengers along the Danu ...

, a Greek shipping company, and renamed ''Jupiter''.

Sinking of the ''Jupiter''

On 21 October 1988, 391 schoolchildren aged 13 to 16 and their teachers boarded ''Jupiter'' at the Greek port of Piraeus at the start of a week-long educational cruise around the Mediterranean. Just 15 minutes after leaving port, the ''Jupiter'' was struck by an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

freight ship, the ''Adige'', that was entering port. The collision tore a by hole in ''Jupiter''s

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

side. Within 40 minutes (at 6:55p.m.), the ship had sunk vertically and

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

first in of water. The lives of two passengers (a pupil and a teacher from the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

) and two Greek crew members were lost. Around 70 people sustained injuries.

Aftermath

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the captain of the Italian ship was detained and Greek and Italian authorities each blamed the other party. The subsequent court cases lasted almost eight years. The ship remained where she sank, from the port entrance at Piraeus. A significant oil leakage occurred in 1999, possibly following disturbance of the seabed by an earthquake, and was removed in a 43-day operation to protect the local marine environment. An

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

report in 1999 focused on the experiences of the children and formed one of the largest studies of adolescent survivors of disasters when it was published. The impact on the young people was also recorded in a book called ''Jupiter's Children, ''compiled by former schoolteacher and ''Jupiter'' survivor Mary Campion and published in 1998. Given the gravity of the incident, it was considered remarkable that all but one schoolchild survived, but in an interview in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', Mary Campion suggested that their behaviour may have been a contributory factor: "Schoolchildren are accustomed to obeying orders and those aboard did so without argument. They are used to being in a crowd, being controlled by adults, without questioning at the time, and to moving frequently in a school day in large numbers without pushing, jostling or hurting each other." Writing in the newsletter of the group Disaster Action in 2010, Campion said that although the case had set a number of

legal precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

s in UK law and had changed safety regulations for passengers on ships, many of the survivors were suffering from

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

in the aftermath and did not receive the treatment they needed. She added that a

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page for Jupiter Survivors established in 2009 had revealed that many people were still adversely affected two decades on.

Trivia

* The MV ''Adige'' was still in service as a car carrier until she was scrapped in 2001.

References

External links