ACHILLE LAURO - FLOTTA LAURO
MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. Built between 1939 and 1947 as MS Willem Ruys, a passenger liner for the Rotterdamsche Lloyd, she was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985.
In 1994, the ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
Contents
[hide] 1 Concept and construction
2 Service history 2.1 As the Willem Ruys 2.1.1 On the East Indies route
2.1.2 Collision with Oranje
2.2 Journey to Java 2.2.1 Later years
2.3 As Achille Lauro 2.3.1 1985 hijacking
2.3.2 Later years, fire, and sinking
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Concept and construction[edit]
Ordered in 1938 to replace the ageing ships on the Dutch East Indies route, her keel was laid in 1939 at De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen, Netherlands, for Rotterdamsche Lloyd (now Nedlloyd). Interrupted by World War II and two bombing raids, the ship was finally launched in July 1946, as Willem Ruys. The ship was named after the grandson of the founder of the Rotterdamsche Lloyd who was taken hostage and shot during the war.
Willem Ruys was completed in late 1947. At that time, the Rotterdamsche Lloyd had been granted a royal prefix in honor of its services during the war. Willem Ruys was 192 metres (630 ft) in length, 25 metres (82 ft) in beam, had a draught of 8.9 metres (29.2 ft), and measured 21,119 gross register tons. Eight Sulzer engines drove two propellers. She could accommodate 900 passengers. She featured a superstructure very different from other liners of that era; Willem Ruys pioneered low-slung aluminium lifeboats, within the upper-works' flanks. The next ship to adopt this unique arrangement was the SS Canberra in 1961. Today, all cruise ships follow this layout.
Service history[edit]
As the Willem Ruys[edit]
On the East Indies route[edit]
As Willem Ruys, the ship began her maiden voyage on 5 December 1947. Together with her main competitor and running mate, the MS Oranje of the Netherland Line, she became a popular fixture on the Dutch East Indies route. However, when the East Indies gained independence from The Netherlands in 1949, passengers numbers decreased.
The former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew had travelled aboard Willem Ruys as a fresh graduate upon completing his studies in the United Kingdom.[2]
Collision with Oranje[edit]
On 6 January 1953, Willem Ruys collided in the Red Sea with running mate MS Oranje, heading in the opposite direction. At that time, it was common for passenger ships to pass each other at close range to entertain their passengers. During the (later heavily criticized) abrupt and fast approach of Oranje, Willem Ruys made an unexpected swing to the left, resulting in a collision. It was a near-miss disaster. Oranje badly damaged her bow. Due to the possibility that she would be impounded for safety reasons, she was unable to call at Colombo as scheduled, and went directly to Jakarta. Willem Ruys suffered less damage. There was no loss of life involved. Later, it was determined that miscommunication on both ships had caused the collision.
Journey to Java[edit]
During 1957, the English diplomat, author and diarist Harold Nicolson, together with his wife, the author and poet, Vita Sackville-West toured the Far East for two months aboard Willem Ruys. The voyage is fully documented in his published journal of the trip "Journey to Java"[3] which provides a detailed account of first class travel on the vessel in the 1950s.
Later years[edit]
After repairs, Royal Rotterdam Lloyd decided to release Willem Ruys on the North Atlantic run. First, she was placed on the New York service, and later Canada was included.
In 1958, the Royal Rotterdamsche Lloyd and the Netherland Line signed a co-operative agreement to create a round-the-world passenger service. The joint fleet would sail under the banner of "The Royal Dutch Mail Ships". Together with Oranje and Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, Willem Ruys underwent an extensive refit to prepare her for this new service. She made two charter trips to Montreal for the Europa-Canada service. Then, from 20 September 1958, until 25 February 1959, she underwent a major facelift at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Amsterdam, turning her from a passenger liner into a cruise ship. Her original four class distinctions became First and Tourist Class. A hundred new cabins were installed and air-conditioning was extended throughout all accommodations. The Javanese crew members were replaced by Europeans, who required upgraded crew accommodation. Externally, she was fitted with a new glazed in Tourist Class Wintergarden, her forward funnel was heightened and stabilizers were fitted. Willem Ruys was now able to accommodate 275 first class, and 770 tourist class passengers, although there were many interchangeable cabins which had additional berths fitted, which could increase the maximum passenger number to 1167. Her new specifications would see her tonnage increase from 21,119 to 23,114 gross register ton.
On 7 March 1959, Willem Ruys went off on her new world service to Australia and New Zealand. She departed from Rotterdam, sailing via Southampton, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand, returning via the Panama Canal. The Royal Dutch Mail Ships (Willem Ruys, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Oranje) became a popular alternative to the British liners.
At the end of 1964, due to a strong drop in passenger numbers, Willem Ruys was laid up in Rotterdam and put up for sale.
As Achille Lauro[edit]
In 1965, she was sold to the Flotta Lauro Line, or Star Lauro, (now MSC Cruises) and renamed Achille Lauro (after the company owner). Extensively rebuilt and modernized after an August 1965 onboard explosion, Achille Lauro entered service in 1966 carrying passengers to Sydney, Australia. The ship played a role in evacuating the families of British servicemen caught up in the unrest in Aden, and then made one of the last northbound transits through the Suez Canal prior to its closure during the Six Day War.
Achille Lauro was converted to a cruise ship in early 1972, during which time she suffered a disastrous fire. A 1975 collision with the cargo ship Youseff resulted in the sinking of the latter, and another onboard fire in 1981 took her out of service for a time. She was laid up in Tenerife when Lauro Lines went bankrupt in 1982. The Chandris Line took possession of her under a charter arrangement in 1985, shortly before the hijacking.
1985 hijacking[edit]
Main article: Achille Lauro hijacking
On 7 October 1985, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. After being refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers killed disabled Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and then threw his body overboard.[4]
The ship then headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner in exchange for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner. This plane, however, was intercepted by US fighter aircraft and directed to land in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested and later tried for murder.
Later years, fire, and sinking[edit]
The ship continued in service; she was reflagged in 1987 when the Lauro Line was taken over by the Mediterranean Shipping Company to become StarLauro. On 30 November 1994, she caught fire off the coast of Somalia while en route to South Africa. At that time, the cause of the fire was suggested by Italian officials to be a discarded cigarette. In reality, the fire started in the engine room with the explosion of one of the engines; due to the lack of supervision, the fire burned out of control before discovery.[5] The crew attempted to battle the fire for several hours but were unsuccessful.[6] Abandoned, the vessel sank on 2 December 1994.[7]
See also[edit]
Lauro Lines s.r.l. v. Chasser et al., the U.S. Supreme Court case in the aftermath of this incident
The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro, 1989 film
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair, 1990 film
List of hostage crises
1979 Nahariya attack
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Ward, Douglas (1995). Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships. Oxford: Berlitz. ISBN 2-8315-1327-8.
2.Jump up ^ "The Singapore Story". Time. 3 March 2011.
3.Jump up ^ Nicolson, Harold (1957). Journey to Java. London: Constable.
4.Jump up ^ Berman, Daphna (9 May 2008). "Klinghoffer daughters recall personal tragedy at commemoration of terror victims outside Israel". Haaretz.
5.Jump up ^ Cowell, Alan (2 December 1994). "Achille Lauro Smolders After 1,000 Are Rescued". The New York Times.
6.Jump up ^ "1994: Blazing liner abandoned off east Africa". BBC. 30 November 1994.
7.Jump up ^ Reuben Goossens. "Achille Lauro". ssMaritime.com. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
L'Achille Lauro fu un transatlantico, inizialmente chiamato Willem Ruys e poi intitolato all'armatore Lauro, quando questi la comprò negli anni sessanta per trasformarla in nave da crociera. È famosa per il dirottamento che vi avvenne nel 1985. Affondò nel 1994 per un incendio al largo della costa somala.
Indice
[nascondi] 1 Le origini
2 Il dirottamento
3 L'affondamento
4 Note
5 Altri progetti
6 Collegamenti esterni
Le origini[modifica wikitesto]
Ordinata nel 1938 come Willem Ruys, il suo scafo venne impostato nel 1938 a Vlissingen, Paesi Bassi, per i Rotterdamsche Lloyd. La costruzione venne ritardata dalla seconda guerra mondiale e da due bombardamenti e la nave non venne varata fino al luglio 1946. La Willem Ruys venne completata alla fine del 1947 e compì il suo viaggio inaugurale il 2 dicembre 1947. Era dotata di un impianto di desalinizzazione per ricavare acqua potabile dall'acqua di mare. Fino al 1963 rimase in servizio sulla linea Europa-Australia. Successivamente venne usata per crociere nel Mediterraneo.
Nel 1964, venne venduta alla Flotta Lauro e ribattezzata Achille Lauro. Ricostruita estensivamente e modernizzata nei Cantieri del Tirreno di Palermo, rientrò in servizio nel 1966 come nave da crociera. Nell'aprile 1975, mentre si trovava nello stretto dei Dardanelli entrò in collisione con una nave trasporto bestiame, la Yousset che affondò. Nel 1982 successivamente al fallimento della Flotta Lauro, passò alla Lauro Line della Mediterranean Shipping Company.
Per quattro volte (1965, 1972, 1981 e 1994) fu vittima di incendi, l'ultimo dei quali, scoppiato il 30 novembre 1994 ne causò l'affondamento il 2 dicembre, tre giorni dopo.
Il dirottamento[modifica wikitesto]
Per approfondire, vedi Dirottamento dell'Achille Lauro.
Il 7 ottobre 1985, mentre compiva una crociera nel Mediterraneo, al largo delle coste egiziane, venne dirottata da un commando del Fronte per la Liberazione della Palestina (FLP). A bordo erano presenti 201 passeggeri e 344 uomini dell'equipaggio.
Dopo frenetiche trattative diplomatiche si giunse in un primo momento ad una felice conclusione della vicenda, grazie all'intercessione dell'Egitto, dell'OLP di Arafat (che in quel periodo aveva trasferito il quartier generale dal Libano a Tunisi a causa dell'invasione israeliana del Libano) e dello stesso Abu Abbas (uno dei due negoziatori, proposti da Arafat, insieme a Hani El Hassan, un consigliere dello stesso Arafat[1]), che convinse i terroristi alla resa in cambio della promessa dell'immunità.
Due giorni dopo si scoprì tuttavia che a bordo era stato ucciso un cittadino americano, Leon Klinghoffer, ebreo e paralitico: l'episodio provocò la reazione degli Stati Uniti.
L'Achille Lauro nella stagione 1986/87
Dopo aver lasciato Alessandria e aver effettuato uno scalo in Grecia, l'Achille Lauro si diresse verso Napoli, quando la CIA passò un'informazione, forse proveniente dai servizi egiziani, relativa alla possibile presenza di esplosivo su alcune casse caricate ad Alessandria. Pur non potendo verificare la veridicità dell'informazione il SISMI, in accordo con il comandante della nave, decise per precauzione di far gettare in mare alcune casse di cui non era stato possibile far controllare il contenuto.[1]
Nel 1990 il dirottamento venne raccontato in un film per la televisione, Il viaggio del terrore: la vera storia dell'Achille Lauro con Burt Lancaster e Eva Marie Saint.
L'affondamento[modifica wikitesto]
La nave fu acquisita nel 1987 dalla Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A.. Il 30 novembre 1994, mentre era in navigazione al largo della Somalia, scoppiò un incendio che tre giorni più tardi, il 2 dicembre 1994 ne causò l'affondamento. L'incendio causò due morti, uno dei quali schiacciato da una scialuppa di salvataggio durante un'errata manovra nelle fasi di evacuazione e uno per complicanze cardiovascolari. La maggior parte dei passeggeri venne salvato dal vascello battente bandiera panamense Hawaiian King. Una parte dell'equipaggio venne tratta in salvo dalla fregata Zeffiro della Marina Militare Italiana che rientrava da una missione a Jedda. Le operazioni di salvataggio furono coordinate dal comandante Maurizio Gemignani supportato dal comandante in seconda Cosimo Nicastro e dal direttore sanitario medico di bordo dr Nicola Freda. I passeggeri superstiti vennero scortati nel porto di Gibuti sotto la supervisione del GM Davide Bottalico Ufficiale Medico della Fregata Zeffiro. Secondo la commissione d'inchiesta istituita dal ministero dei Trasporti l'incendio fu dovuto al caso. Non è pensabile il recupero del relitto, per via della sua antieconomicità e per via del fatto che nel punto dell'affondamento, a 95 miglia dalla costa somala, in pieno Oceano Indiano, la profondità è di circa 5 000 m.
Note[modifica wikitesto]
1.^ a b Fulvio Martini, Nome in codice Ulisse, pag 112 e seguenti, 1999, Rizzoli, ISBN 88-17-86096-4
Altri progetti[modifica wikitesto]
Commons contiene immagini o altri file su Achille Lauro
Collegamenti esterni[modifica wikitesto]
(EN) H2G2 article about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro
(EN) Special Operations.Com Achille Lauro Hijacking
La testimonianza dell'ammiraglio Martini, all'epoca del dirottamento direttore del Sismi
La testimonianza di Gennaro Acquaviva, consigliere di Craxi durante il dirottamento
Intrigo internazionale: l'affaire "Achille Lauro" La Storia siamo Noi
ACHILLE LAURO - FLOTTA LAURO
MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. Built between 1939 and 1947 as MS Willem Ruys, a passenger liner for the Rotterdamsche Lloyd, she was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985.
In 1994, the ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
Contents
[hide] 1 Concept and construction
2 Service history 2.1 As the Willem Ruys 2.1.1 On the East Indies route
2.1.2 Collision with Oranje
2.2 Journey to Java 2.2.1 Later years
2.3 As Achille Lauro 2.3.1 1985 hijacking
2.3.2 Later years, fire, and sinking
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Concept and construction[edit]
Ordered in 1938 to replace the ageing ships on the Dutch East Indies route, her keel was laid in 1939 at De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen, Netherlands, for Rotterdamsche Lloyd (now Nedlloyd). Interrupted by World War II and two bombing raids, the ship was finally launched in July 1946, as Willem Ruys. The ship was named after the grandson of the founder of the Rotterdamsche Lloyd who was taken hostage and shot during the war.
Willem Ruys was completed in late 1947. At that time, the Rotterdamsche Lloyd had been granted a royal prefix in honor of its services during the war. Willem Ruys was 192 metres (630 ft) in length, 25 metres (82 ft) in beam, had a draught of 8.9 metres (29.2 ft), and measured 21,119 gross register tons. Eight Sulzer engines drove two propellers. She could accommodate 900 passengers. She featured a superstructure very different from other liners of that era; Willem Ruys pioneered low-slung aluminium lifeboats, within the upper-works' flanks. The next ship to adopt this unique arrangement was the SS Canberra in 1961. Today, all cruise ships follow this layout.
Service history[edit]
As the Willem Ruys[edit]
On the East Indies route[edit]
As Willem Ruys, the ship began her maiden voyage on 5 December 1947. Together with her main competitor and running mate, the MS Oranje of the Netherland Line, she became a popular fixture on the Dutch East Indies route. However, when the East Indies gained independence from The Netherlands in 1949, passengers numbers decreased.
The former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew had travelled aboard Willem Ruys as a fresh graduate upon completing his studies in the United Kingdom.[2]
Collision with Oranje[edit]
On 6 January 1953, Willem Ruys collided in the Red Sea with running mate MS Oranje, heading in the opposite direction. At that time, it was common for passenger ships to pass each other at close range to entertain their passengers. During the (later heavily criticized) abrupt and fast approach of Oranje, Willem Ruys made an unexpected swing to the left, resulting in a collision. It was a near-miss disaster. Oranje badly damaged her bow. Due to the possibility that she would be impounded for safety reasons, she was unable to call at Colombo as scheduled, and went directly to Jakarta. Willem Ruys suffered less damage. There was no loss of life involved. Later, it was determined that miscommunication on both ships had caused the collision.
Journey to Java[edit]
During 1957, the English diplomat, author and diarist Harold Nicolson, together with his wife, the author and poet, Vita Sackville-West toured the Far East for two months aboard Willem Ruys. The voyage is fully documented in his published journal of the trip "Journey to Java"[3] which provides a detailed account of first class travel on the vessel in the 1950s.
Later years[edit]
After repairs, Royal Rotterdam Lloyd decided to release Willem Ruys on the North Atlantic run. First, she was placed on the New York service, and later Canada was included.
In 1958, the Royal Rotterdamsche Lloyd and the Netherland Line signed a co-operative agreement to create a round-the-world passenger service. The joint fleet would sail under the banner of "The Royal Dutch Mail Ships". Together with Oranje and Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, Willem Ruys underwent an extensive refit to prepare her for this new service. She made two charter trips to Montreal for the Europa-Canada service. Then, from 20 September 1958, until 25 February 1959, she underwent a major facelift at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Amsterdam, turning her from a passenger liner into a cruise ship. Her original four class distinctions became First and Tourist Class. A hundred new cabins were installed and air-conditioning was extended throughout all accommodations. The Javanese crew members were replaced by Europeans, who required upgraded crew accommodation. Externally, she was fitted with a new glazed in Tourist Class Wintergarden, her forward funnel was heightened and stabilizers were fitted. Willem Ruys was now able to accommodate 275 first class, and 770 tourist class passengers, although there were many interchangeable cabins which had additional berths fitted, which could increase the maximum passenger number to 1167. Her new specifications would see her tonnage increase from 21,119 to 23,114 gross register ton.
On 7 March 1959, Willem Ruys went off on her new world service to Australia and New Zealand. She departed from Rotterdam, sailing via Southampton, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand, returning via the Panama Canal. The Royal Dutch Mail Ships (Willem Ruys, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Oranje) became a popular alternative to the British liners.
At the end of 1964, due to a strong drop in passenger numbers, Willem Ruys was laid up in Rotterdam and put up for sale.
As Achille Lauro[edit]
In 1965, she was sold to the Flotta Lauro Line, or Star Lauro, (now MSC Cruises) and renamed Achille Lauro (after the company owner). Extensively rebuilt and modernized after an August 1965 onboard explosion, Achille Lauro entered service in 1966 carrying passengers to Sydney, Australia. The ship played a role in evacuating the families of British servicemen caught up in the unrest in Aden, and then made one of the last northbound transits through the Suez Canal prior to its closure during the Six Day War.
Achille Lauro was converted to a cruise ship in early 1972, during which time she suffered a disastrous fire. A 1975 collision with the cargo ship Youseff resulted in the sinking of the latter, and another onboard fire in 1981 took her out of service for a time. She was laid up in Tenerife when Lauro Lines went bankrupt in 1982. The Chandris Line took possession of her under a charter arrangement in 1985, shortly before the hijacking.
1985 hijacking[edit]
Main article: Achille Lauro hijacking
On 7 October 1985, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. After being refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers killed disabled Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and then threw his body overboard.[4]
The ship then headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner in exchange for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner. This plane, however, was intercepted by US fighter aircraft and directed to land in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested and later tried for murder.
Later years, fire, and sinking[edit]
The ship continued in service; she was reflagged in 1987 when the Lauro Line was taken over by the Mediterranean Shipping Company to become StarLauro. On 30 November 1994, she caught fire off the coast of Somalia while en route to South Africa. At that time, the cause of the fire was suggested by Italian officials to be a discarded cigarette. In reality, the fire started in the engine room with the explosion of one of the engines; due to the lack of supervision, the fire burned out of control before discovery.[5] The crew attempted to battle the fire for several hours but were unsuccessful.[6] Abandoned, the vessel sank on 2 December 1994.[7]
See also[edit]
Lauro Lines s.r.l. v. Chasser et al., the U.S. Supreme Court case in the aftermath of this incident
The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro, 1989 film
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair, 1990 film
List of hostage crises
1979 Nahariya attack
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Ward, Douglas (1995). Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships. Oxford: Berlitz. ISBN 2-8315-1327-8.
2.Jump up ^ "The Singapore Story". Time. 3 March 2011.
3.Jump up ^ Nicolson, Harold (1957). Journey to Java. London: Constable.
4.Jump up ^ Berman, Daphna (9 May 2008). "Klinghoffer daughters recall personal tragedy at commemoration of terror victims outside Israel". Haaretz.
5.Jump up ^ Cowell, Alan (2 December 1994). "Achille Lauro Smolders After 1,000 Are Rescued". The New York Times.
6.Jump up ^ "1994: Blazing liner abandoned off east Africa". BBC. 30 November 1994.
7.Jump up ^ Reuben Goossens. "Achille Lauro". ssMaritime.com. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
L'Achille Lauro fu un transatlantico, inizialmente chiamato Willem Ruys e poi intitolato all'armatore Lauro, quando questi la comprò negli anni sessanta per trasformarla in nave da crociera. È famosa per il dirottamento che vi avvenne nel 1985. Affondò nel 1994 per un incendio al largo della costa somala.
Indice
[nascondi] 1 Le origini
2 Il dirottamento
3 L'affondamento
4 Note
5 Altri progetti
6 Collegamenti esterni
Le origini[modifica wikitesto]
Ordinata nel 1938 come Willem Ruys, il suo scafo venne impostato nel 1938 a Vlissingen, Paesi Bassi, per i Rotterdamsche Lloyd. La costruzione venne ritardata dalla seconda guerra mondiale e da due bombardamenti e la nave non venne varata fino al luglio 1946. La Willem Ruys venne completata alla fine del 1947 e compì il suo viaggio inaugurale il 2 dicembre 1947. Era dotata di un impianto di desalinizzazione per ricavare acqua potabile dall'acqua di mare. Fino al 1963 rimase in servizio sulla linea Europa-Australia. Successivamente venne usata per crociere nel Mediterraneo.
Nel 1964, venne venduta alla Flotta Lauro e ribattezzata Achille Lauro. Ricostruita estensivamente e modernizzata nei Cantieri del Tirreno di Palermo, rientrò in servizio nel 1966 come nave da crociera. Nell'aprile 1975, mentre si trovava nello stretto dei Dardanelli entrò in collisione con una nave trasporto bestiame, la Yousset che affondò. Nel 1982 successivamente al fallimento della Flotta Lauro, passò alla Lauro Line della Mediterranean Shipping Company.
Per quattro volte (1965, 1972, 1981 e 1994) fu vittima di incendi, l'ultimo dei quali, scoppiato il 30 novembre 1994 ne causò l'affondamento il 2 dicembre, tre giorni dopo.
Il dirottamento[modifica wikitesto]
Per approfondire, vedi Dirottamento dell'Achille Lauro.
Il 7 ottobre 1985, mentre compiva una crociera nel Mediterraneo, al largo delle coste egiziane, venne dirottata da un commando del Fronte per la Liberazione della Palestina (FLP). A bordo erano presenti 201 passeggeri e 344 uomini dell'equipaggio.
Dopo frenetiche trattative diplomatiche si giunse in un primo momento ad una felice conclusione della vicenda, grazie all'intercessione dell'Egitto, dell'OLP di Arafat (che in quel periodo aveva trasferito il quartier generale dal Libano a Tunisi a causa dell'invasione israeliana del Libano) e dello stesso Abu Abbas (uno dei due negoziatori, proposti da Arafat, insieme a Hani El Hassan, un consigliere dello stesso Arafat[1]), che convinse i terroristi alla resa in cambio della promessa dell'immunità.
Due giorni dopo si scoprì tuttavia che a bordo era stato ucciso un cittadino americano, Leon Klinghoffer, ebreo e paralitico: l'episodio provocò la reazione degli Stati Uniti.
L'Achille Lauro nella stagione 1986/87
Dopo aver lasciato Alessandria e aver effettuato uno scalo in Grecia, l'Achille Lauro si diresse verso Napoli, quando la CIA passò un'informazione, forse proveniente dai servizi egiziani, relativa alla possibile presenza di esplosivo su alcune casse caricate ad Alessandria. Pur non potendo verificare la veridicità dell'informazione il SISMI, in accordo con il comandante della nave, decise per precauzione di far gettare in mare alcune casse di cui non era stato possibile far controllare il contenuto.[1]
Nel 1990 il dirottamento venne raccontato in un film per la televisione, Il viaggio del terrore: la vera storia dell'Achille Lauro con Burt Lancaster e Eva Marie Saint.
L'affondamento[modifica wikitesto]
La nave fu acquisita nel 1987 dalla Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A.. Il 30 novembre 1994, mentre era in navigazione al largo della Somalia, scoppiò un incendio che tre giorni più tardi, il 2 dicembre 1994 ne causò l'affondamento. L'incendio causò due morti, uno dei quali schiacciato da una scialuppa di salvataggio durante un'errata manovra nelle fasi di evacuazione e uno per complicanze cardiovascolari. La maggior parte dei passeggeri venne salvato dal vascello battente bandiera panamense Hawaiian King. Una parte dell'equipaggio venne tratta in salvo dalla fregata Zeffiro della Marina Militare Italiana che rientrava da una missione a Jedda. Le operazioni di salvataggio furono coordinate dal comandante Maurizio Gemignani supportato dal comandante in seconda Cosimo Nicastro e dal direttore sanitario medico di bordo dr Nicola Freda. I passeggeri superstiti vennero scortati nel porto di Gibuti sotto la supervisione del GM Davide Bottalico Ufficiale Medico della Fregata Zeffiro. Secondo la commissione d'inchiesta istituita dal ministero dei Trasporti l'incendio fu dovuto al caso. Non è pensabile il recupero del relitto, per via della sua antieconomicità e per via del fatto che nel punto dell'affondamento, a 95 miglia dalla costa somala, in pieno Oceano Indiano, la profondità è di circa 5 000 m.
Note[modifica wikitesto]
1.^ a b Fulvio Martini, Nome in codice Ulisse, pag 112 e seguenti, 1999, Rizzoli, ISBN 88-17-86096-4
Altri progetti[modifica wikitesto]
Commons contiene immagini o altri file su Achille Lauro
Collegamenti esterni[modifica wikitesto]
(EN) H2G2 article about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro
(EN) Special Operations.Com Achille Lauro Hijacking
La testimonianza dell'ammiraglio Martini, all'epoca del dirottamento direttore del Sismi
La testimonianza di Gennaro Acquaviva, consigliere di Craxi durante il dirottamento
Intrigo internazionale: l'affaire "Achille Lauro" La Storia siamo Noi