Shipwreck HMS Perseus (N 36)

British submarine “Perseus”, with a displacement of 2040 tones. On 6 December 1941, “Perseus”, with a 59- member crew including Nikolaos Merlin, Greek Lieutenant of Hellenic Navy, crashed into a mine at the coasts of Kefalonia (at Scala) and sank in a depth of 52 meters.The ships’s spot was unknown until recently, in February 1998, when the group of the diver Kostas Thoktaridis found it. From the 59-member crew, only the 31-year-old sailor John Capes had been saved. He was hidden by local people of Scala for 15 months. Then, he escaped to Izmir with the diesel-powered ship “Evangelistria” owned by Miltiadis Choumis.The Greek Lieutenant Nikolaos Merlin had asked himself to be part of “Perseus” crew. Later, its last name was given to the ferry boat “Merlin” which had a tragic end when, in 1972, crashed with the tanker “World Hero” outside Piraeus port. This accident was the cause of death for 44 people.

Sources Chrisros Ntounis wrecks at Greek seas 1900-1950 volume A