Kefalonia In The News

Found on the seabed the vessel where time has stood still.
Sub that tells the story of an astonishing escape'
With a photo of the doomed submarine Perseus the Daily Mail reports:
It was all just as he had said it would be. Divers finally found the wreck of the Perseus 170 ft under the Ionian Sea yesterday -and any doubts about John Capes' wartime story of surival were finally laid to rest.

The 31-year old sailor was the only survivor when the British submarine was sunk as it patrolled the waters off the Greek island of Kefalonia on 6 December, 1941. He became the only person ever known to have escaped from a shipwreck at such a depth.

The discovery of the wreck yesterday backs up the account the stoker filed with the Navy at the time. He was one of a crew of 60 on board the Perseus, which sank minutes after a mysterious blast ripped a hole in its bow.

Capes, who died in 1988 told how the compartment he was in near the submarine's tail flooded last, although the vessel had already settled on the seabed.

Accompanied by 3 injured crewmen he managed to open the hatch by activating an escape mechanism which flooded the cabin to equalise the pressure.

After boosting their courage with a bottle of rum, he used a device known as the Davis submerged escape apparatus to try to float himself and the others out of the submarine. But when he surfaced in the icy waters, his crewmates had disappeared.

After swimming for several hours he managed to reach Kefalonia and collapsed on the beach at Skala. Locals found him there next day and hid him from Italian and later German occupation forces until 31 May 1943 when he was smuggled by ship to Turkey and freedom.

Yesterday a research team led by Greek diver Kostas Thoctarides found the 2040 ton submarine where it had lain undisturbed for more than half a century. 'It was a feeling of awa, because it was the most impressive wreck we have ever seen,' said Mr Thoctarides, who had scoured the seabed for 20 days before finding the Perseus by sonar. 'Everything was in lace. It was if time had stopped.'

An Italian mine anchor nearby provided the answer to the sinking that had baffled the Navy. Apart from atear caused by the mine on its left side, the sbmarine was intact.

The gun and wheel on the bridge were still in place, while the compass was sill working. Capes's hatch was open, as he had described, while an empty bottle of rum lay just inside the compartment.

'We didn't enter the submarine, said Mr Thoctarides, 'It's a war grave and we didn't want to disturb anything.'

Greek Election - 1st Round Sunday November 7th 2010


On Monday, 11th January 2010 , the Greek government presented their plan to merge local municipalities, named the 'Kallikratis' plan.
Although it has many aspects, the main element to Kallikratis, is to do away with the prefectures that currently span the country and replace them with larger regions, whittling the municipalities right down.
In the case of Kefalonia and Ithaca, for example, the municipalities of Kefalonia and Ithaca (Eleios Pronnoi, Erisos, Argostoli, Livathou, Paliki, Pylaros, Sami and Ithaca ) will become one large municipality for the whole of Kefalonia and Ithaca. The number of village municipality offices will be decreased only really operating as information offices and for paying water bills etc, though which ones have yet to be decided upon.

The plan is named Kallikratis after one of the two architects who worked on the Parthenon. Apparently the government chose to name the municipality restructure plan after Kallikratis in order to stress "its revolutionary character".
Prime Minister George Papandreou said the government is determined to proceed with the "Kallikratis" reform and merger plan in public administration and local government, stressing that "the Greek people voted us into office to make changes, not patches". He said the plan has wide acceptance among the public and emphasised the critical importance of the Kallikratis plan for local government, saying this would bring about fundamental and much-needed reforms to public sector administrative structures.
Local 1st round government elections are to take place on Sunday 7th November 2010 and the 2nd round Sunday 14th under the new set-up of fewer municipalities. The new municipal and regional authorities will then be created on January 1, 2011 with the newly elected officials.

Sources:ANA-MPA, Ekathimerini

Being a municipal election, any citizens already registered at their town hall are entitled to vote. If you have not registered before August 31st, then it is too late as the registers are now closed.