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Dimitris : In-depth Information The wreck of the Greek steamer Dimitris is located on the East Scar Rocks at Redcar, 2.75 km off the Cleveland coast in the north-east of England in position 54° 37 25N, 01° 01 66W (map reference NZ 6240 2581). The ’Dimitris’ was built in 1918 by Caird & Co. Ltd. at Greenock, as a Standard A-class vessel, the ’War Malayan’. She was 122 metres long, with a beam of nearly 16 metres, a depth of hold of 8.5 metres and was powered by a 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine, built by Caird & Co. This gave her a top speed of 11 knots. Completed just after the end of the First World War in 1919, she was then sold to a Greek, S.G Embiricos, who changed her name to the ’Michael L. Embiricos’ and converted her to a dry cargo ship. She continued in service with this company for the next thirty-three years, somehow surviving the Second World War although not without incident; in March 1941, the vessel was attacked by German aircraft off the Welsh coast, earning her First Officer, Vassilios Michas, an ungazetted George Medal. In 1952 she was sold on to new Greek owners, Bogiazides Brothers & N.D.Rallias and re-named ’Dimitris’, though her Port of Registry remained the Greek port of Andros. Her final voyage began on December 1st 1953, when she left the port of Bona in Algeria, bound for Middlesbrough with a cargo of iron ore. At around 9.30 p.m. on December 14th, in good visibility and the moon shining, the Dimitris crashed onto the East Scar rocks, some 275 metres from the shore. Chief Cook Petre Theoharopulos (the only member of the crew who could speak English) later spoke to a Middlesbrough Evening Gazette reporter; “I was in the galley when it happened. There was a bang and the ship shuddered. A few minutes later the lights went out and I ran out on deck.” The Dimitris had struck the rocks amidships, flooding the engine room and cutting all power throughout the ship. Distress flares were fired and the Redcar Lifeboat ’City of Leeds’ was quickly launched and arrived at the scene. In pitch darkness and with a heavy swell running, the lifeboat rescued the 36 crew members with assistance from local fishing boats. At daylight the next morning, officials from the Tees Towing Company surveyed the vessel. Listing to starboard and firmly impaled on the rocks, the Dimitris was doomed. Extensive salvage operations were carried out in 1954 and together with the actions of the sea soon reduced the vessel to a pile of scrap metal. Today, the wreckage of this vessel, known to local scuba divers as the ’Dimi’, provides one of the best dives on the north-east coast. Lying in relatively shallow water marine life thrives here, and many types of kelp, crabs, lobsters and fish are regular residents; large Grey Seals are also frequent visitors. From the shore, the only visible reminder of the wreck is a vertical steel post which can be seen at low water. Beneath the surface however, large sections of wreckage still cover the seabed, including much of the lower hull, her three large boilers, engine block, and steel propeller shaft. A large quantity of anchor chain lies in a tangled pile in the bow area, while at the stern the rudder still survives intact. The vessel's spare 4-bladed iron propeller lies on the seabed close by. In 2002, 'Cleveland Divers', a local branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, embarked on “Project Shipwreck Dimitris” , one element of which was to carry out a basic archaeological survey of the wreck under the Nautical Archaeology Society's 'Adopt-a-Wreck' initiative. Divers recorded major sections of the surviving through a measured survey and by taking video footage, all of which culminated in the production of a 'virtual reality' tour of the wreck site. |
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