ASTI ex MELETIOS VENETSANOS

[Aris]

The Greek steamer MELETIOS VENETSANOS (Built 1912 as RIO JAMARY for service in the Amazon river) was seized in March 1943 in Marseilles by the Italian authorities.
According to Greek bibliography she hoisted the Italian flag, was renamed ASTI and manned by Italian crew she sailed from Marseilles on June 25.

According to a now defunct webpage maintained by Franco Prevato she sailed from Marseille on June 20 for Genoa where she remained until September 8 when she was captured by the Germans. He presumes that she was scuttled later as a blockship.

Pedro Prevato wrote:

La nave ASTI ex MEIETOS VENEZIANOS di propriea greca, fu presa in consegna dalle Autorita italiane e consegnata all'Adriatica, nel porto di MARSIGLIA, il 20 febbraio 1943. In quel porto rimase in sosta fino al 20 giugno, quando poi parta, alla volta di GENOVA, vuota di carico e con sola scorta militare. A Genova arriva il 22 e vi rimase fino all'8 settembre. Il giorno dopo, la nave fu occupata dalle forze armate tedesche. L'equipaggio fu immediatamente sbarcato e non fu internato nei campi di concentramento, contrariamente ad altre circostanze, tutti poterono quindi rientrare alle proprie residenze.

Si presume che l'ASTI sia stata portata ad affondare in prossimita delle bocche di porto.

According to the Greek Register Office, the ship was lost by war cause in November 1943 between Crete and the Dodecanesse.
In KTB I have not managed to find any mention of ASTI during that period.
Can any help trace her story after March 1943?

[Platon Alexiades]

Hello Aris,

The only thing I could find was that ASTI sailed from Genoa at 0500/6 July escorted by MAS 304 and proceeded at 6 knots to Savona where she arrived at 0830/6 July 1943.

I doubt very much she moved to the Aegean as the invasion of Sicily which occurred 3 days later made the trip across the Messina Strait hazardous.

Best regards,

Platon

[geosub1978]

Hello Platon:

The following derives from Aris'es forum:

Miramar lists her as having been launched as Rio Jamary on February 15, 1911 and completed at Smith's Dock in South Bank, Middlesborough on February 1912. But the shipyard itself has her completed in June 1911. http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/smit...jamary1911.htm She had a length of 44.3 m, width of 9.2 m and 307 tons. The first owner was the R Pollock Sons & Co Ltd of Manaos, Brazil, for service on the Amazon river! The Pollocks had the Apex Tire & Rubber Co in the USA, among other business. By the way, Rio Jamary is a tributary of the Madeira, which in turn is a tributary of Amazon at the level of the city of Rodania several hundred miles west/south west of Manaos. It is not clear if teh ship went all the way there!

She seems to have been renamed Excellencia in 1913. She was bought by E. Logothetopoulos of Nauplion in 1920 and named Sia. Then in 1938 she was bought by P&A Venetzianos and named Meletios Venetzianos (not surprising that the Italians spelled this name as Venezianos). Now, I must admit that I have never come across Sia or Meletios Venetzianos as passenger ships... But the book The History of Greek-Owned Shipping, by Gerlina Harlaftis mentions (p. 378) a P&A Venetzianos company having one steamship of (guess what) 423 tons!

Franco Prevato has given her story once she passed to Adriatica during World War II and was named Asti. But her sinking in the Genoa port (see photo before) was not her end. Presumably, she was removed and repaired after World War II and was used by the Venetzianos company until 1952. Miramar has her deleted in 1964!

And a photo of the scuttling. I don't know what the dating "1940" stands for.

[Aris]

Thank you both for your input.

Well Geosub1978, some of the data written at https://forum.nautilia.gr/showthread.ph ... post181012 by Nicholas Peppas are not really valid.
For example the first owner of the ship was J.Pollock, Sons & Co Ltd not R. Pollock, Sons & Co as Peppas wrote. Also the real owners owned an established shipyard in Faversham, Scotland which had nothing to do with Walter J. Pollock who was involved in the US firm Apex Tires & Rubber Co. J.Pollock, Sons & Co appears to own a number of Amazon River steamers but I think they only held title and did not operated their selves. Regarding RIO JAMARY https://histarmar.com.ar/sitionuevo/rio-jamary-2/ mentions that she was ordered by J. Pollock, Sons & Co but was sold while under construction to B. Levy & Cía, a well established trading firm in Manaos who operated her in the region.
Secondly, there is no evidence of the ship being renamed Excellencia in 1913. During her registration in Piraeus she is clearly mentioned as the former RIO JAMARY.
Lastly, the ship was not repaired after the war, only LR failed to erase her until 1964.

I am also very sceptical whether the photo shows ASTI or a larger ship scuttled as blockship in Genoa. After all P. Prevato only pressumed that she was scuttled. Also, the few photos of the ship available in the web suggest a much smaller vessel than the one in the photo.

[de domenico]

I have from Historisches Marine-Archiv (by Dimitris Galon) that MELETIOS VENETZIANOS ex SIA ex RIO JAMARY (owned since 1931 by Patroklos Venetzianos of Piraeus) sank in 1941 due to war damage. She was probably later salved and repaired. On 20.2.1943 confiscated by the Italian government in Marseilles and renamed ASTI. On 20.6.1943 escorted in ballast toward Genoa, arriving there on 22.6.43. On 9.8.43 (read 8.9.43) in German hands. Probably scuttled near Genoa harbour.

[Aris]

Thank you Francesco

I also found in a post by the late Theo Dorgeist in forum-marinarchiv as well as in a thread in the old forum that after the signing of the Laval-Kaufmann treaty in January 1943 she was taken over by MMR and then transferred as HELLAS11 to Italy. She was in Group 4 that included non-seaworthy ships.

[davidships]

Although I can add nothing to the original question about this vessels war history and loss, I can clarify some parts of her earlier history.

James Pollock, Sons & Co Ltd were London-based consulting engineers and naval architects (having their own shipyard at Faversham only came later, towards the end of WW1). They made a specialism of what would now be known as design-build-deliver package contracts, especially for their forign clients, of which many were in Brazil. They took the order (No.333) from Navegação de B Levy e Companhia, based in Manaús and Porto Santo on the river Madeira, in 1910. They subcontracted construction to Smith's Dock Co at their new (1910) shipyard at South Bank, Middlesbrough.

Somethings seems not to have been quite right about the contract as, although RIO JAMARY was launched on 15/2/1911, it was more than a year before she was completed, apparently in May 1912. Her engine was installed on the Tyne but she did not leave there on her delivery voyage until 4/8/1912.

There must a be a story about the return of the ship to Europe - most unusual for that type of shallow-draft steamer designed for river service. I suppose that the collapse of the Amazon economy after the end of the rubber boom made surplus steamers unsaleable there. After less than eight years RIO JAMARY had returned to England, arriving at Liverpool on 26/1/1920 via Las Palmas and Lisbon. In May 1920 she was sold, clearly to Greek buyers as her local shipping agency was changed to Melandrinos & Co and, according to the Liverpool shipping newspaper, she was renamed ANASTASSIA/ANASTASIA. On 6/8/1920 she sailed for Salonica. That doesn't seem to have been picked up by Lloyd's Register at the time, as has already been noted, she appears in the registers from c1921 as the strangely shortened SIA.

Here's a treat. These three small photos of RIO JAMARY were taken in 1912-13 (glass-plate negatives in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation archives, Brazil).

[Aris]

Many thanks for your informative post David!
She was one of five Amazon river steamers that made it back to Europe at about that time and were bought by Greek shipowners.

[davidships]

Interesting Aris
What were the other four?

[Aris]

Dear David
the other Amazon River steamers that were acquired by Greeks, as far as I am aware of, were:

SYROS ex JUSTO CHERMONT see https://forum.nautilia.gr/showthread.ph ... Syros-Lens

FANEROMENI ex IZIDORO ANTUNES https://forum.nautilia.gr/showthread.ph ... Faneromeni

MILTIADES ex CAMPOS SALLES see https://forum.nautilia.gr/showthread.ph ... -Miltiades

ARGONNE ex CABRAL