Extended Summary of Patris Documentary
A rainy day at the Industrial Museum of Syros, the Museum’s director, collects information on an old shipwreck. He immediately goes to Athens, where he conducts an extensive research, and then, he sails with his diving team to the island of Kea, in Cyclades. Near the coast of Kea the team starts diving with the aim to locate the historical shipwreck. Soon the wreck is located at the maximum depth of -55 meters and the story begis…
The shipwreck is a steam engine paddle ship that looks like a riverboat. The Museum’s Director though, knew that already. It was one of the first ships that used a paddle wheel steam engine, before the discovery of the screw propeller and it sunk in 1868. The team found out that the particular vessel is probably one of a kind. The Museum’s Director goes back to Athens, while the rest of the team begins to dive at the site on a regular basis. They entered the wreck, studied the vessel and salvaged a number of objects. Just like a time machine, this sunken ship takes us back to a different period of time, that of sails and steam. At the same time the Director gathered all relevant information on the shipwreck and soon, he had to chose whether or not the team should lift one of the paddle wheels.
This particular kind of propulsion system cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The ship is called «Patris» and was owned by the first shipping line of Greece, «Hellenic Steam Navigation» based on Syros. After examining the problem thoroughly, the team decided to attempt lifting the paddle wheel. One floating crane, one towing boat and a number of other vessels all co-operated on the salvage operation. But at the sea there are a number of unforeseen factors. The weight of the paddle wheel was more than what was anticipated and the depth of -55m posed difficulties in the precise control of the crane…
