Zenobia Wreck

Wreck

The Zenobia is the dive people visit Cyprus for. It is a large, roll-on roll-off ferry that was built to operate in the eastern Mediterranean. It was during its maiden voyage from Sweden to Syria that it sank. The steering was not working correctly, so the Captain made the decision to pull into Larnaca Harbour. Here engineers noticed a major problem with the onboard computer system that resulted in water being pumped into the ships ballast tanks. The Zenobia was towed into deeper waters about half a mile from Larnaca so that the engineers could work on the problem, but it was listing to an angle of 45° so it was decided that there was nothing that could be done to save the ferry. The Captain requested that the Zenobia should be taken back to the harbour, but permission was never granted as a ship of that size would effectively prevent traffic from entering Larnaca Harbour. It took two days for the ferry to sink, taking the 104 articulated lorries that it had on board with it.