The British Submarine “PERSEUS” set-off on
24-11-1941 from Malta for an offensive Patrol mission in the gulf of
Taranta in the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea. On 6-12-1941 she struck a
mine off the coast of Kefalonia and went down taking with her 60
officers and lower ranked men. The British crew member
(stoker) John Capes was the sole survivor as he managed a daring last minute escape from the sunken submarine. Using a special escape apparatus
named DAVIS he performed a "second to none", a superhuman effort to
successfully ascent from the Perseus Shipwreck, to the surface of the cold
Ionian sea water and also to his survivor... He swam to the nearest shore
of Kefalonia Island, a beautiful island which was then under the Italian
occupation.
The
Sinking
On the
night of 6 December, 1941, H.M.S. PERSEUS was patrolling the surface of
the Ionian Sea between the Greek islands of
Kefalonia
and Zante. On board the ship appart from its permanent crew,
were the British Sailor (stoker) John
Capesand the Greek
Lieutenant
Nicolaos Merlin. It was a dark and windy night. Suddenly a tremendous explosion
shattered the submarine from stem to stern. The submarine had hit
something, probably a
mine. From the crack that was caused by the collision ďn the port fore
side and the
opened
hatch of the
conning
tower tons of water surged into the vessel. . A
few seconds later the submarine is going down in a nosedive along with
sixty
officers and sailors that are drifted in the cold
waters of the Ionian Sea. .
From the sixty men that
were drifted along with the submarine on the seabed of the Ionian Sea, an
English rating managed to do something unique in the Navy History. The
stoker John Capes was resting at the aft compartment just before the
explosion occurred. He was going through some letters, drinking rum. When
H.M.S PERSEUS began to sink, the aft compartment did not flood until the
submarine touched the bottom of the
Ionian
Sea.
Although injured, Capes
started to search for other survivors and found three other badly injured
stokers,
alive in the debris. Without wasting any time, Capes found the Davis
Submerged Escape Apparatus and helped his wounded companions to put them
on. Then he had to find a way to open the
hatch of the
aft compartment and that could only be done by balancing the pressure in
the compartment with that in the sea. First he lowered the collapsible
canvas escape trunk and secured it by lashings to the deck.
Unfortunately
when he found the valve he had to use in order to flood the compartment he
saw that its spindle was bent and immovable. So he had to find another way
to do it otherwise they would be trapped. And he did. He flooded the
compartment using the underwater gun, which is under normal circumstances
used for sending smoke signals to the surface. Immediately he helped his
shipmates to duck down under the water, come up inside the trunk and get
out to the sea through the escape hatch. Then he followed the same procedure
and began his own ascent from 52 meters depth. Straining through his
painful ascent he managed to surface and started looking around for his
companions, in vain. No one else had survived the sinking of H.M.S.
PERSEUS that became an underwater grave for fifty-nine men.
Despite being badly worn out, Capes
summoned up all the energy he had left and started swimming towards the
dark
mass he could discern in the horizon. After a struggle of many hours with
the cold sea he reached to a rocky beach. With great effort he crawled
over the rocks to finally get to one of the impressive beaches of
KefaloniaIsland. Exhausted as he was he lapsed into unconsciousness.
There he was found by the
island inhabitants (Miltiades Xareras and Xaralabos
Valianos, two
fishermen from the nearest area, Mavrata
village, found him)
who medically treated and took him into shelter.
Having been in good hands for more than 18 months he was helped to escape
to safety in Smyrna.
John Capes extraordinary survival adventure was difficult to be
taken seriously. No one believed his stories as they seemed too far
fetched. As such no one ever understood what this man had really gone
through, this was more like a journey from hell to paradise. It had never
happened before, for someone to escape from such a depth. Today, 56 years
later the Diving Research Team of
Costas Thoctarides sheds some light
into the mysteries of how the sinking of the HMS Perseus happened. Unfortunately John Capes is no
longer with us so that his daring escape story could be brought to
justice, with the verification of his escape...
The
Sinking
Unfortunately
when he found the valve he had to use in order to flood the compartment he
saw that its spindle was bent and immovable. So he had to find another way
to do it otherwise they would be trapped. And he did. He flooded the
compartment using the underwater gun, which is under normal circumstances
used for sending smoke signals to the surface. Immediately he helped his
shipmates to duck down under the water, come up inside the trunk and get
out to the sea through the escape hatch. Then he followed the same procedure
and began his own ascent from 52 meters depth. Straining through his
painful ascent he managed to surface and started looking around for his
companions, in vain. No one else had survived the sinking of H.M.S.
PERSEUS that became an underwater grave for fifty-nine men.
dark
mass he could discern in the horizon. After a struggle of many hours with
the cold sea he reached to a rocky beach. With great effort he crawled
over the rocks to finally get to one of the impressive beaches of