Ship Carrying 750 Is Rammed, Sunk; 2 Killed

A Greek cruise ship with as many as 750 people on board, including 475 British students and teachers, collided with an Italian freighter and sank near shore Friday, officials said. Two Greek seamen were killed and 14 other people were reported missing.

Small boats picked up the panicked high school students who jumped or fell into the water from the Jupiter, a 6,300-ton cruise ship, as it sank less than a mile from Piraeus harbor, said an official with the Merchant Marine Ministry.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 64 people, including 30 students, were hospitalized with slight injuries and shock. He said two Greek seamen died.

The ministry said 14 people were missing, and state-owned Athens television said about 72 people were injured.

Italian Captain Blamed

Merchant Marine Minister Evangelos Yannopoulos said in a statement that the Italian freighter was to blame and that its skipper, Capt. Flavio Caminale, was being held on manslaughter charges.

Five hours after the disaster, it was still not clear whether any of the 415 students and 60 teachers aboard the 6,306-ton Jupiter were among the missing.

Margaret Jones of Schools Abroad, which organized the eight-day educational cruise for students from 30 different schools, said, “We are still collecting names because people are scattered at different hospitals, but we haven’t any reports of students missing.”

Scores of teen-agers wrapped in blankets were crowded into the coast guard headquarters at dockside. They later were transferred to a sister ship for the night.

A spokesman for the Jupiter’s owners, Epirotiki Lines, said the ship was rammed by the 5,054-ton Adige, a container ship owned by the Sicula Oceanica Spa of Palermo, Sicily.

“The Jupiter was coming out of harbor and had right of way, but the Adige came in at considerable speed and hit it amidships on the left hand side,” he said.

A statement issued by Italian merchant marine officials said a Greek pilot was aboard the Adige at the time of the collision. It said there were no victims on the Italian vessel.

Christina Horton, a teacher at Brownhill Secondary Modern School, said, “I never imagined a ship could sink so fast. . . . The kids were jumping into the sea, but small boats came to the rescue quickly.”

Because the collision happened so close to shore, many small boats and coast guard launches were in the area to pick up the passengers, said the official from the Merchant Marine Ministry.

Horton said the collision occurred as the students gathered for a meal in the ship’s dining room.

Dozens of panicked passengers leaped overboard as the ship started to sink.

“I jumped into the sea and swam for a rescue boat, but it went away and I had to make for another,” said a weeping, oil-spattered 14-year-old who refused to give her name.