Sunken Greek ship “Peltastis”
In the area between Šilo and bay Klimno, there is a lot of bays which are suitable for diving. The most popular is the area where only about 100 meters from the shore at a depth of 32m is sunken Greek ship Peltastis. The story says, the sea gives us, but it also takes from us. On the night of 7 to 8 January 1968 in a very bad weather the sea in this bay took about 26 m high Greek cargo ship, along with eight lives. Bora wind was blowing more than 150 km / h, even the full power of an engine has not been able to stop the ship before the collision into the cliffs located between Šilo and bay Klimno. Due to the muddy seabed, even the anchor had failed to hold the ship in place. Four crew members survived. In a few days they found the bodies of the remaining seven crew members. Captain’s body was found in the wreckage a few months later, discovered by some Austrian man. It was suggested that the captain Theodoros Beleisis did not want to leave the sinking ship, and order the crew, to tie him to the captain’s bridge.
Under the boy there is the sunken ship
Tomaž and I stopped at the stall in Šilo, bought a mask and went to search this sunken Greek ship Peltastis. The roads are not marked really well, so we had a lot of luck to reach the right path driving through some forest trails. We only knew that on the sport where the sunken ship was located, there should be two buoys floating above it. We saw two of them in the sea where the ship was supposed to be so we decided to check if we were at the right place. We jumped into the water and swam towards the buoys, the sea was dark and the visibility was not the best. We came to the firs buoy and were a bit disappointed because we did not see anything. When we almost gave up and went swimming back towards the shore, Tomaž saw the top of the ship. We were happy to acknowledge that we were at the right spot after all. However we were aware that if we would want to see more of it, we should have the right scuba gear and descend deeper as the mast begins at a depth of six meters. But below it it’s the real surprise. With the sinking mask I could see the top of the mast, which was all wrapped in seaweed and surrounded by fish which reminded me of a snake shaped head. The scene was pretty scary, but very exciting. It was obvious that the sunken Greek ship Peltastis now became a home to many marine animals. Especially for fish that were taking over the mast.
I highly recommend diving with scuba gear, if you are trained in this course. Otherwise, you can contact the various agencies that offer diving, under the expert guidance diver. Any diver who has undergone basic diving course, can take u from 20 to 30 meters deep, which is just enough to see this fascinating sunken Greek ship “Peltastis” and get yourself a real image, of how this horrible night looked like in January in 1968th
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