The brochure for for the cruise liner Lakonia promised “A MARVELOUS CHRISTMAS CRUISE TO SUNNY MADEIRA AND THE CANARY ISLANDS…HAVE YOUR HOLIDAY WITH ALL RISK ELIMINATED. ENJOY A HOLIDAY YOU WILL REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.”
Now fifty years later, the survivors and families of those aboard remember the last cruise of the Lakonia, which ended in disaster and the loss of 128 passengers and crew. Earlier this month, survivors unveiled a plaque on Gibraltar to commemorate those lost. As reported by the Gibraltar Chronicle:
The plaque was commissioned by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust to commemorate the terrible night when the cruise ship caught fire off the coast of Madeira in the Atlantic and lost 128 lives. Of those who perished 58 were buried in North Front Cemetery in Gibraltar, but since then most have been repatriated. There are 14 graves remaining now, nine in the Protestant area, two in the Catholic area and three in the Jewish cemetery.
On December 22, 1963, while sailing north of the island of Madeira, a fire started in a shipboard beauty salon on the Lakonia, which spread rapidly and was soon burning out of control. There were 1,022 aboard, 646 passengers and 376 crewmen.
Within four hours, the Argentinian liner, Salta, arrived at the burning ship and began rescuing passengers and crew. A half an hour later the British tanker, Montcalm, joined the rescue. They would be joined by the Belgian ship Charlesville, the Brazilian freighter Rio Grande, the British passenger ship Stratheden, the Panamanian freighter Mehdi and British aircraft carrier HMS Centaur. Four United States Air Force C-54 planes from the Lajes Air Base in the Azores dropped flares, lifejackets, life rafts and survival kits to people in the water.
Of the total of 128 people who died in the Lakonia disaster, 95 passengers and 33 crew, only 53 people were killed in the fire. The rest died from exposure, drowning and injuries sustained while leaving the ship.
I was second mate on a BP Tanker carrying a full load of light Venezualan Crude Oil at this time and arrived on the ‘abandon ship’ position quite a long time later and as 2nd mate I was instructed to lower our motor lifeboat. With the senior apprentice and two ABs we picked up over a dozen bodies, some burnt and some with horrendous wounds either possibly caused when jumping overboard. Later the RFA Tanker Montcalm instructedall the rescue ships to form a line abreast with safe distance between ships and to slowly steam Southwards towards the still burning hulk of the Lakonia. When one of use spotted a body we called up the HMS Centaur and they would send out a helicopter with a ‘scoop net’ to do the recovery. I heard a rumour that the fire was started by the disgruntled assistant Barber in the beauty shop also that the Captain had complained that if the rescue ships had come closer to the burning Lakonia more lives might have been saved…oh! yes Captain, we are going to steam close to a burning liner when we were carrying a full super tanker load of very volatile light Venezualan crude oil!! Understandably our Christmas that year was very subdued.