Prosperity 50th anniversary: Victim's son visits island

Evangelos Giagkoudakis travelled from Greece to honour his father who lost his life in the tragedy

The son of a crew member who lost his life in the Prosperity shipwreck has visited Guernsey to mark the disaster's 50th anniversary.

Prosperity was a Cypriot cargo vessel which lost power during a storm on the night of 16 January 1974.

The ship struck the Conchee Reef near Perelle where it partially sank and crew members abandoned ship.

The tragedy saw 18 lives lost including Evangelos Giagkoudakis's father, who he remembered at a memorial service.

Mr Giagkoudakis was only five years old when his father Nicolaos Giagkoudakis lost his life and said he was "too young" to fully understand what happened.

Making the journey from Greece for the anniversary memorial service, he said it was a dream that inspired him to be there.

"I had a dream from my mum who has passed away, she told me she wanted to be here too," he said.

"I thought about what she would have wanted to say, so this was the beginning of me planning for this service."

Mr Giagkoudakis thanked everyone for playing their part in remembering the 18 people who lost their lives.

Artist impression of the wreck - Courtesy of Guernsey Museums and Galleries, States of Guernsey.

Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service member Keith Fothergill witnessed the devastation first-hand in 1974 when he was winched onto the the ship from a helicopter.

"It was quite hair-raising as there were still very stormy seas and every time a wave hit the Prosperity, the whole thing shuddered," he said.

"We made our way to the cabin area and found their passports so we were able to identify the crew, what we did not find is what we were looking for, which was any survivors or bodies as they had all abandoned ship or got washed overboard."

'Everyone searching'

Mr Fothergill described the following week as a "terrifying" experience for the rescue service.

"We put out our inshore rescue boat quite a few times around the Cobo area as everyone was searching because bodies hadn't been washed up and been recovered at that point" he said.

Parts of the wreck remain where they sank and have been filmed by scuba diver JP Fallaize.

"You could actually swim down inside it and I was surprised how much of it was left, because it isn't a wreck which is dived very often," he said.

"I knew it hadn't been documented and filmed, what I wanted to capture is what happened to the ship after it had gone onto the reef."

Mr Fallaize said it was important to record what happened for future generations.

"We see the pictures of it mangled at the time, but what we saw surprised us," he said.

Parts of the ship are now on display in the Shipwreck Museum at Fort Grey in Guernsey.

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