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| HMS PERSEUS On the night of 6 December, 1941, HMS Perseus, a British Parthian class submarine on patrol in the Ionian Sea, hit a mine and sank. All the listed crew were lost. And another Kefalonia legend was born. Local fishermen from Mavrata rescued a British sailor, 31 year old stoker John Hawtrey Capes, just off the coast near Katelios. At great risk, the local population hid him from Italian and Nazi occupying forces, in various village houses around Kefalonia, for eighteen months until he was able to escape back to the UK. |
 Launch
of a Parthian class submarine
|
 John Capes, via navy.gr |
On return
to the UK many contemporaries
considered that, although
submarines were equipped with escape apparatus, the escape he made from the sunken sub to be
impossible. He wasn't on the crew
list for the Perseus and hence he
was regarded by some as a deserter. According to Capes, he
had missed his ship and was hitching a lift on the Perseus
to re-join it. Accounts about John Capes and HMS Perseus vary. According to some sources he was later awarded the British Empire Medal (Military Division) for "outstanding courage, endurance and resource", this seems to be confirmed by an entry in the London Gazette dated 10 December, '43. |
| In 1997 a team of Greek
divers led by Kostas Thoktarides discovered the wreck of
the Perseus on the seabed, some 52m down, between
Kefalonia and Zakynthos. The description Capes had
provided matched the wreck, down to the rum flask he
dropped at the bottom of the escape hatch, having taken
one last swig before attempting his escape. Following the success of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin there was talk of a Perseus film but, to date, nothing seems to have come of it apart from a docudrama: trailer for The Perseus Survivor. The wreck of HMS Perseus has been declared an official war grave, a memorial stands in Poros near the Hotel Anastazia. It's now possible for experienced divers to undertake organised dives to the wreck, contact the local dive schools. There's more information about John Capes and HMS Perseus on Kostas Thoktarides' website, navy,gr, and there's a very interesting video clip of a dive to the wreck of HMS Perseus. |
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