Inside the haunting half-sunken ‘City on the Sea’ cruise ship that once ferried the rich in luxury but now lies rotting
It could once ferry 1,000 people in five star luxury across the ocean
AN INCREDIBLE cruise ship dubbed “City on the Sea” has been abandoned, beached and left to rot for decades.
The glory days of the Mediterranean Sky, otherwise known as City of York, are long behind – but the ship’s wreck still attracts visitors from far and wide.
Once a magnificent cruise ship, it has now become one of the best known shipwrecks in Greece.
The City of York was built in 1953 by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering of Barrow-in-Furness in the UK.
In 1971, the liner was sold to Greek cruise company Karageorgis Lines which converted it into a passenger ferry.
The floating palace had an incredible journey, having travelled between England, South Africa, Mozambique and Spain alongside its three sister ships – the City of Port Elizabeth, City of Exeter and City of Durban.
It once travelled from London to Cape Town in a whopping fifteen days.
The passenger boat had state-of-the-art amenities for the time, including luxury cabins, three swimming pools, lavish bars and air conditioning.
The size of the ship was as impressive spanning 541 feet in length and 72ft in width.
It could accommodate up to 1,000 guests onboard and 470 vehicles.
The flashy interior of the cruise ship and its grandiose allured the rich and famous of the 1970s.
High-profile people would hire out the boat during the winter months.
The City of York was also the first cruise ship to travel on the now-famous route between Patras, Greece and Venice, Italy.
But in August 1996, the liner would make its last journey from Patras to Brindisi in Greece.
Karageorgis – the man who had given the ship a new lease on life -died that same year at the age of 96.
With operating costs high and Greece heading for a shipping recession, the company ceased to exist.
After the owners had put up the ship for sale, it laid still in the waters of the old port of Patras for three years.
It was then transferred to Elefsina in 2002 where it remains to this day.
The now-abandoned ship was hauled to shallow water and purposefully beached.
The City of York started to tilt gradually until, by January 2003, it had capsized and partially sunk.
Today the wreck lies completely heeled over on its starboard side.
Cruise ships which have been left to rot
THE world is full of the wrecks of huge ocean liners, often left to rot in their watery graves, others simply abandoned in their old age.
The MS Astor
Before its demise, this huge cruise ship was the height of luxury and travelled across the world with its state-of-the-art facilities.
Now, it has been left to crumble and haunting pictures show the inside of the creepy, but impressive abandoned ship.
The Galaxy
Nestled deep in the jungle on an Idyllic island in Bali sits a floating abandoned hotel with a dark and tragic past.
The Galaxy Hotel is a refurbished seven-storey cruise ship that was suddenly and mysteriously shut down and left to rot.
Aliağa shipyard
Turkey is home to one of the world’s largest ship graveyards, where over 670 abandoned boats have gone to die – including huge cruise ships such as the MS Astor.
Aliağa shipyard (pictured above) is where vessels are torn apart, stripped of all their worth and left to rot.
Aurora
A ship once considered the ‘Jewel of Germany’ was left to decay for decades until one
Christopher Willson bought the cruise ship – complete with 85 cabins – over 14 years ago on Craigslist – and the pain-staking renovations are only half complete.
The vessel also enjoyed a brief career in after being a filming location for the 1963 James Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’.
Although many of the rooms were impossible for looters to access due to their steep angle, the interiors were looted almost immediately after the ship sank.
Despite attempts in 2009 to remove the liner, it had been left to rot in ignominy for the last 22 years.
The area surrounding the ship is one from the apocalypse movie with trash scattered all around.
The City of York also had a makeover by a graffiti crew OneUp who painted a large “1UP” on the exposed side of the ship in 2017.
The haunting images of the rusty ferry are still visible on Google Earth.
Despite its poor condition, there are still carpets on the floors, lifeboats hanging from their davits, beds and bedding in some of the rooms, cabin keys hung up, and life jackets hidden in lockers.
The once classic ship is now a relic of the past with tourists occasionally snapping pictures of the wreck.
