SS Herakleion (ex SS Leisestershire) by Typaldos Lines.
SS Heraklion was built as the SS Leicestershire by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Glasgow in 1949, for the Bibby Line to operate the UK to Burma route. She was chartered to the British India Line for some time to supplement its London to East Africa service. In 1964 she was sold to the Aegean Steam Navigation Co to operate under their Typaldos Line, renamed SS Heraklion.
Once Typaldos Line took ownership, she was refitted as a passenger/car ferry. The ship had an overall length of 498 ft (152 m), a beam of 60 ft (18 m), gross tonnage of 8.922 tons, single prop reaching a speed of 17 knots. Winter capacity was 35 trucks with an average weight of 10 tons.
In the evening of December 7, 1966, and under extreme weather conditions, with winds blowing at 9 Beaufort scale, Heraklion sailed at 8.00 pm from Souda Bay, Crete for Piraeus, with a 2 hour delay, allegedly in order to embark a refrigerator truck that according to most accounts contributed to the sinking. Presently, passenger ships operating in Greek seas are prohibited from sailing with winds blowing at 8 Beaufort scale or higher, but at the time it was up to the captain to decide whether to sail or not, sometimes under pressure from the ship owners.
Halfway through the voyage and while sailing south of the small rocky island of Falkonera the aforemention refrigerator truck which was carrying oranges and was either left unsecured or was loosely strapped started banging on the midship loading door which eventually gave in and opened with the result of the truck plummeting into the sea where it was found floating the next morning and water coming in which after 15 or 20 minutes led to ship capsizing sometime after 2:00am on December 8, 1966, with loss of 217 human life!