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The Lakonia Incident
The Lakonia Incident
HMS Centaur and Phil MacQuaid sailed from Portsmouth on the 21 December 1963, two days after the cruise ship Lakonia had departed from Southampton.
The Lakonia had set sail for an eleven day 'Christmas Cruise' of the Canary Islands. There were 646 passengers and 376 crew on board Lakonia - a total of 1022 people.
Cruise Ship Lakonia (FAAM)
Although the first few days were filled with the normal enjoyment of a luxury cruise, on the 22 December a crew member noticed thick smoke coming from the ship's hairdressers.
Fire alarms sounded, but too softly to be heard by most passengers. Captain Zarbis attempted to make an announcement on the ship's intercom system, but it had been disabled by the blaze.
A six-man fire crew attempted to fight the blaze but the fire spread too quickly to be contained. The ship's purser gave the order to abandon ship shortly before 0100.
Evacuating was very difficult and a total of 128 people died in the Lakonia disaster, of which 95 were passengers and 33 were crew members.
Only 53 people were killed in the actual fire. The rest died from exposure, drowning and injuries sustained while diving overboard.
Photograph's from Macquaid photograph album (FAAM)
Although other ships went to the rescue, the crew from HMS Centaur were the first to be able to board the Lakonia on December 24, once the flames had died down.
Most of the bodies were recovered by the crew of the Centaur. By this time, the Lakonia was a charred, smoking hulk. Her superstructure had partially collapsed amidships and the bridge and aft decks had caved in.
On HMS Centaur the only helicopters onboard were two Search and Rescue Helicopters, ship's boats were also sent to look for survivors.
Unfortunately the ship's task was only to recover bodies from the accident. HMS Centaur became a temporary morgue until the bodies could be taken to Gibraltar. For the crew the best way to deal with the tragedy was to keep busy -
'All members of the Watch on deck were involved in one-way or another. To be honest we all just did as we were told, as there was no time to think about what we were doing.'
Map, 'East of Suez' 1964 (FAAM)
HMS Centaur and Junior Naval Airmen MacQuaid had a very eventful tour.
After the Lakonia Incident they were involved in supplying Royal Marines during the Tanganyika Incident as well as their normal deployment plans of India, Singapore and Hong Kong.
