Red Sea Safaris

Viki K

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Poseidon / Viki K at The Red Sea Wreck Project
Poseidon

The Viki K was a 5,936 GRT Cargo Ship originally built as the Poseidon at Flender Werken AG, Lübeck, Germany (Yard-No. 430) for Kohlen-Import & Poseidon Schiffahrt AG, Hamburg, Germany as the 39th ship of their fleet. Launched 18 December 1951 and completed in March of 1952, she had a length of 141.46 meters, beam of 18.27 meters, and draught of 6.99 meters. Propulsion was provided by a single 2-stroke 6-cylinder Howaldtswerke AG diesel engine and a single shaft for a speed of 13.5 knots. Normal crew compliment was 44 men, with accommodations for 10 passengers.

Poseidon / Viki K at The Red Sea Wreck Project
Poseidon
From the time of her launch in 1952 until 1955, the Poseidon was in service with Kohlen-Import & Poseidon Schiffahrt AG. In 1955 the ship was transferred over to Poseidon Schiffahrt Gmbh, Hamburg, where she continued service shipping coal and general cargo between Germany, the United States, Canada, and South America.
In 1971, the ship was sold to Solidarity Shipping Co SA, Piraeus (GRC) and renamed SOLIDARITY. In 1978 she was laid up at Piraeus until being sold in 1981 to Crystal Breeze Cia. Naviera SA. Piraeus and then sold again that same year to Vicky Shipping Co. (Demetris P. Kavadas, Piraeus, Greece) and renamed the VIKI K where things became interesting.
 
Poseidon / Viki K at The Red Sea Wreck Project
Poseidon

The loss of the Viki K:
On 02 November 1981, the cargo ship Blue Danube was sailing in the Red Sea south of Safaga when she sighted the crew of the Viki K in lifeboats. There was no sign of the ship anywhere in sight and the crew indicated that the ship had sank.

In the ensuing investigation into the ship’s loss it was found that the Viki K’s cargo of 10,000 tons and polyvinyl chloride, worth over 4 million British Pounds, had been offloaded onto barges in Port Said prior to the ship’s passing through the Suez Canal. The ship then steamed south where the crew intentionally scuttled the ship southeast of Safaga at position 27.38N/34.42E in over 500 meters of water.

The investigation also found that this was the second ship loss by the Vicky Shipping Co. in a short period of time which was lost under questionable circumstances. The company’s owner, Demetrius P. Kavadas, was tried and convicted in absentia by a court in Piraeus and found guilty of fraud. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined 1 Million Drachma.

 
 
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Lee has been in the marketing industry for the last 15 years and now specializes in teaching marketing techniques to people in the scuba diving industry. He is founder of Dive Media Solutions which, in addition to providing complete marketing, media, communications and IT solutions exclusively for the scuba diving industry, also produces The Scuba News. You can connect with Lee via Twitter by following @DiveMedia

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