Survival at Sea
T
Triton Y-5
riton was a Proteus Class gyroscopic compass. At 21:00 Triton submarine of the Hellenic Royal ascended to use its periscope. UJNavy that was built at the Ateliers 2102 was spotted heading toward her & Chantiers de la Loire Shipyard in at great speed. Triton then submerged Nantes, France. She was launched on to a depth of 30m where it was 4th April 1928 and commissioned on attacked with 9 more depth charges 1st March 1930. Triton was the 3rd of resulting in the loss of the right engine four submarines of this class built for amongst other significant damage. the Hellenic Navy in the late 1920s, The commander of Triton had two the others being Protefs, Nirefs and choices: ascend and surrender, or Glafkos. At 750 tons (surfaced), Triton fight. He chose to fight. was 68.6m (225ft) long with a beam At 22:00, five and a half hours after the of 5.73m (18.8ft) and a draft of 4.18m first attack, the Commander of Triton, E. (13.7ft).Her top speeds were 14 knots Kondogiannis, ordered the submarine at the surface and 8.5 knots submerged. to surface and fire with a machine gun. Submarine Triton and her crew in the port of Alexandria, Egypt Triton’s war missions began in As soon as they reached the surface the Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas the Greek-Italian War, when she Commander fired his revolver at UJconducted patrols in the Ionian 2102 and then attempted to fire with Sea. These and other duties were a machine gun. UJ-2102 then fired at interrupted when Greece became occupied the submarine. The Commander then lost by Germany. At that point in WWII, Triton consciousness due to the shock and fell into sailed for Alexandria. From the Middle East the sea whilst the crew opened fire with she completed 7 patrols and one voyage to machine guns at UJ-2102. At 22:14 UJMalta, where she delivered supplies before 2102 using all its guns attacked Triton one returning to home waters. more time after which began the evacuation of the submarine. On November 10th 1942, the submarine began her 15th and final mission to From the surviving crew, 28 surrendered Northern Euboea in order to drop off 5 or were found unconscious, including Crew of submarine Triton agents and 340 kg of war supplies. On 16th Commander Kondogiannis, while Nikolaos Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas November Triton reached her destination. Maroulas and D. Papadimitriou escaped by However, the mission was delayed due to swimming to shore, seeking refuge at the bad weather. At 16:00 the crew spotted nearby village of Thimiani and finally fleeing an enemy hydroplane and descended to to the Middle East. The crew that had opened a depth of 30m to evade it. At 16:20 it fire with machine guns were all killed, and ascended in order to use its periscope and were among the 23 who perished. Christos spotted an enemy convoy which it decided Soliotis, who was the last person on board to attack. While approaching the convoy Triton, opened the ventilation in order to she changed course, heading northeast for sink it faster and not let the submarine be a better angle of attack. At 16:30 from a taken by the enemy. distance of 5.5km Triton launched an attack The crew that was captured received medical on the convoy, firing one torpedo which did aid from the German UJ-2102. After being not find its target. interrogated they were transported to the prison of war camp “MARLANG”, where Triton had been spotted by UJ-2102, which they remained until their liberation from the remained at a distance of 1.400m and did allied forces on 28th April 1945. Triton’s flag not follow the convoy. At 16:40 UJ-2102 remained in the hands of the Commander launched its first attack with 13 depth of UJ-2102 until 20th September 1972, charges set for a depth of 70 to 125m. At when it was surrendered to Ioanni Maniati 17:00 there followed a second attack with Evangelos Kollintzas on duty, in a special ceremony at the Mürwik Naval 11 depth charges which did not cause any onboard submarine Triton Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas School. Today Triton’s flag can be found on significant damage to Triton. After several display at the submarine base in Salamina. manoeuvres, at 20:05, UJ-2102 launched its third attack against Triton with 13 more This story is not only particularly relevant because it is part of depth charges which managed to cause significant damage. Greek Naval history but it has a connection to the Company. More specifically, one of the survivors on board Triton was Although damaged, the submarine remained operable and 2nd Engineer, Evaggelos Kollintzas, the grandfather of his attempted to escape. However, because the external fuel namesake who currently works in the Chartering Department tanks were breached the oil that leaked to the surface gave at Head Office in Glyfada. Triton’s position away. At 20:30 a fourth attack was launched Sources: el.wikipedia.org, www.uboat.org , en.wikipedia.org, www.hellenicnavy.gr dropping 12 more depth charges which caused significant www.mixanitouxronou.gr damage and made steering impossible and disabled the
