page_title: Slamat disaster
section_title: Rescues
hierarchical_section_title: Slamat disaster / Rescues
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of British G class destroyer HMS Griffin. She was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Ottawa (H31) in 1943.
context_page_description: The Slamat disaster is a succession of three related shipwrecks during the Battle of Greece on 27 April 1941. The Dutch troopship Slamat and the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck sank as a result of air attacks by Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers. The three ships sank off the east coast of the Peloponnese during Operation Demon, which was the evacuation of British, Australian and New Zealand troops from Greece after their defeat by invading German and Italian forces.
  The loss of the three ships caused an estimated 983 deaths. Only 66 men survived.
context_section_description: Wryneck's whaler suffered two holes but was repaired. Her occupants were wet through, her compass was damaged and her drinking water contaminated. Her four oars were serviceable, so Commissioned Engineer Waldron took command and she set off east past Cape Maleas, towing two Carley floats and their occupants. In the evening the wind increased, causing the floats to strike the boat, so Waldron reluctantly cast them adrift. Waldron was also nursing a Leading Seaman, George Fuller, who had bullet wounds in his belly and thigh.
  At 1900 the cruiser HMS Phoebe and seven destroyers reached Souda Bay and disembarked evacuated troops. The Vice Admiral, Light Forces, Henry Pridham-Wippell, became concerned that Diamond was not among them. Between 1922 and 1955 hrs repeated attempts to radio Diamond drew no reply. Wryneck had been ordered to keep radio silence so no attempt was made to radio her. Instead Phoebe and Calcutta were asked if they had seen her, but their replies at 2235 and 2245 hrs were indefinite.
  Pridham-Wippell sent the destroyer HMS Griffin to the position in the Argolic Gulf where Slamat had been lost. Griffin found 14 survivors in two Carley floats. At 0240 hrs she reported the rescue, said both destroyers had been sunk about 1330 hrs and she was still looking for Wryneck's whaler. In the morning she found more floats and another four survivors. She took the survivors to Crete.
  The last living survivor from Slamat, Royal Army Service Corps veteran George Dexter, states that after Wryneck was sunk he and three other men were rescued by Orion.
  On the morning of 28 April the whaler was about 30 nautical miles (56 km) off Milos in the Aegean Sea, so she set course for the island. At noon she sighted Ananes Rock, about 13 nautical miles (24 km) southeast of Milos, so Waldron decided to land there as everyone was exhausted. The rock has a bay, where the whaler found a caïque full of Greek refugees and British soldiers who had set out from Piraeus, were headed for Crete, but were sailing only by night to avoid detection. In the evening the caïque left Ananes and headed south for Crete. As many as possible of the survivors transferred to the caïque, but she was very full so she towed the whaler with five men still in it. On the morning of 29 April the caïque sighted a small landing craft, A6, which had set out from Porto Rafti near Athens. She took aboard everyone from the caïque and whaler, and the next day they reached Souda Bay. After a short stay the survivors from Slamat, Diamond and Wryneck were taken on HMS Hotspur to Port Said, Egypt.
caption: HMS Griffin rescued survivors from Wryneck and Diamond, some of whom were survivors from Slamat. She later took the survivors from Souda Bay to Port Said.
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