From that day the smuggler ship M/V Panagiotis created the famous Shipwreck beach of Zakynthos and renamed the Ormos of Spyrillis’ (Όρμος του Σπυριλλή) to Navagio or Shipwreck beack (Ναύαγιο) was the night of 30th of September 1980. We will tell you the story from the eyes of the local people, who lived and heard everything.
The ship M/V Panagiotis sailed from Argostoli port of Kefalonia island on 12th of September 1980 for her last voyage like the swan’s song. She took permission to sail for Pireus port but she altered her course according to her Captain Dominik Varvatakos for Malta. At sea she received illegal cargo of 2000 boxes of cigarettes tax-free on behalf of Camorra to deliver on speed boats few miles away from Naples. According to the Captain’s opinion the two Italians memebrs of Camorra they didnt want to pay the agreed amount of money for the cargo. He took the ship few nautical miles from Zakynthos island and he was waiting orders from the shipping company, he informed the shipowner that the ship will run out fuel and the weather conditions are going to deteriorate. Then the shipowner came from Kefalonia by a fishing boat to see the Captain and he promised to send him fuel but he forgot him because he was playing Texas poker. Captain had to follow his mind what to do but he trusted the Shipowner that will send him fuel for his voyage. The shipowner lost his money and the Captain lost his ship. The Captain should negotiate with the italians to sell the cargo to them, if they didnt want to pay he could sell the cargo because without documents the cargo belongs to the Captain and he knew few people that they could buy the cargo and the ship. At the end the ship agrounded be she was not under command from a failure of her engine according to official finding. Mr Varvatakos said that was a lie because he didnt has enough fuel , when he tried to avoid the rocks an engineer of the ship did a major damage to a gear of the main engine because he was afraid the revenge of the Camorra. There was a pistol out of order just for fotos Captain said and he grabbed it and he hit the engineer on the head because he said to him we are waiting Gale 8 beaufort scale.
-Ιf you scare the Italians because you have two daughters, then your daughters will loose their father. the engineer started to cry but Captain told him go down at the engine room and start the engine again, so he started the engine and stopped it again because it could be in flames due to high temperature. Captain just turned the wheel hard a port and saw something white in that bay and said if there is a beach we will survive and the ship agrounded few minutes later from the big waves.
On 3rd of October Mrs Diamanto that she was at her grapeyard to paint the door of her fench, she saw 8-9 people in terrible condition dirty, hungry and barefoot. She asked them,
-who are you and where are you going?
-They said that their ship agrounded at Spyrillis’ bay and the want to inform the Port Authorities of Zakynthos about the wreck.
Mrs Diamanto , her hushband and her son prepare a meal for them at their house because they were hungry, barefoot. Seven of them were Greeks and two Italians from Napoli members of Camorra.
The deck boy of the ship said that the ship agrounded and the sea was coming on the ship and we thought that was the end of our lives. We had to wait three days until the sea will be calm to escape because the cliffs are very high around 200 meters. The third day we took the lifeboat with the paddles for six hours we were trying to reach a coast of civilization. Near Blue Caves we found an accesible place to climb and to go barefoot to Volimes village at least 10 kilometres distance.
Another local fisherman who went at Spyrillis’ bay for fishing found out that the ships was abandoned few hours because one of the generator of the ship was in operation. We were approaching and shouting to realise if there is any human being in the ship without any response because the ship was already abandoned.
Local people from Volimes and Orthonies who had fishing boats went there to steal cigarettes but something that many people know about it isnt a secret. The cigarettes were Marlboro,Camel and Dunhill all of them Sarajevo former Yugoslavia. Another local removed the roof his house who stored there straw and put them inside so the Police and the Custom couldnt find them because they had searched before without any succes but he witnessed that after two hours of interogation that because his neighbor was a snitch and said everything.
What you read here it is what you will see on the video below for the anniversary for the 20 years of Shipwreck beach on 2000 that did Maria Karchilaki greek journalist on behalf of Mega Channel and some of the protagonists are talking at the video, so read the text first and then watch the video is in greek but you know the story now.
Enjoy your holidays in Zakynthos