The paddle steamer PATRIS (length 66m = 217 feet, width 8,2m = 27.5 feet, almost a good 800 tons, 180 hp) was built in the shipyard of C. Lumgley & Co, Deptford on the Thames and handed over in 1860. Its original name was “Othon”, in honor of the then first king of Greece, Otto (Όθων in Greek). The ship was part of a delivery of a total of 4 ships, 2 paddle steamers (“Othon” and “Amalia”) and 2 smaller ones (“Byzantium” and “Eptanisos”). The ship was renamed and was handed over to the Greek Steam Company.
On February 23, 1868, and with 400 guests on board, the ship left Piraeus and headed for the island of Siros. In the evening hours, under normal weather conditions but due to incorrect calculations by the captain, the ship hits the Koundoudos reef near Kea and sinks. There were no casualties. Due to the two large wheels, the ship was more reminiscent of a river steamer than a normal sea steamer. One wheel, along with other items, was recovered in 2006 for display in the new Siros Museum. The wreck consists of two parts. They range from 30 to 55 meters deep. You can dive into the wreck at both parts. Diving at this dive site is not always easy because of the current that often prevails there. More information here: https://addicted2h2o.com/p-s-patris/
The dive
Our team kostafastgarnix dived the wreck in September 2023. The first two days we went there with Nikos form scubalife.gr, because our own boat needed a repair on that day. The third day we went there with our own boat.
The model
I made two sizes: one very big with the entire reef and one small version. You can find the 3D-data for reprint in my shop
Othophoto
I made an orthophoto of the wreck. The resolution is 1cm per pixel. (Warning: the file size is 69MB)
Sketchfab
Artwork
Alex from wrackzeichner.de made a fantastic pencil art of the wreck. You can find it here: https://www.wrackzeichner.de/blog/categories/wracks
Making of video
The video shows the dive, the scan, the 3D-modeling and as a bonus: you can see Alex while he is drawing the wreck.