Wreck of a gunboat released for diving
by Urs Raber
The ship now released for diving PELLEGRIN MATTEUCCI crashed into a mine on 21 May 1941 and sank about 2 nautical miles northwest of Cape Doukato. The ship is currently at a maximum depth of 95 meters. The wreck was spotted in April 2017 by Antonis Grafas and his Grafas Diving Team with the support of the Nautilus Diving Club in Vasiliki.
The gunboat PELLEGRINO MATTEUCCI, along with 6 other historically significant wrecks in the Ionian Sea (a total of 91 in Greece), has now been released to the diving community for recreational diving.
Discover
If you’re looking for something special, never seen before, you best go and ask the discoverers of the shipwreck, the Nautilus Diving Club in Vasiliki.
Statement of the Minister of Culture and Sports
According to the statement of the Central Council for Modern Monuments of the Ministry of Culture, a total of 91 shipwrecks in Greece of ships and planes were released for the organized and guided dives.
As stated by the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni, "The seabed of the Greek seas is an underwater ark of our history. The protected underwater areas, where shipwrecks from World War II are located, tell pages of modern Greek history.". The General Secretary of Culture and president of the Central Council of Modern Monuments G. Didaskalos stated that "the services of the Ministry of Culture and Sports work systematically for the documentation and release to the diving community and other important shipwrecks, creating a vast, visitable marine museum."
Note this
According to paragraph 2 of article 7 of Law 4688/2020, which stipulates that “When diving in shipwrecks, divers are prohibited from any intervention or alteration in shipwrecks, as well as the collection, collection or simple movement of any objects or the seabed around "ensures both the integrity of the wrecks themselves as monuments and the safety of diving visitors. In this sense, permitted recreational diving is a non-invasive activity that is limited to the water space that surrounds the monuments and does not interfere with the monuments, inside them.