HMS Perseus

HMS Perseus was a British Parthian-class submarine that struck an Italian mine on 6 December 1941 off the coast of Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea while operating against Axis shipping. Famously, stoker John Capes survived the sinking and escaped from the bottom using a Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus, an event long doubted but later confirmed when divers in 1997 found the conning-tower hatch open exactly as Capes described. The submarine rests upright at approximately 52 metres on a sandy bottom in the Ionian, with the hull largely intact and recognisable: deck gun, conning tower, hatches and propellers are all visible. Because the Perseus is a war grave under UK law, removal of any artefact is forbidden, and penetration of the hull is not permitted; visits are restricted to credentialed technical divers operating in mixed-gas trimix configuration with appropriate permits and licensed local operators. The Ionian visibility routinely exceeds 25 metres in summer, and the wreck has developed an encrusting community of sponges and small soft corals.