The ancient Greeks dreaded the sudden squalls of the wine-dark Aegean Sea, where even the mighty Odysseus was sometimes washed overboard during his voyages. Modern Greeks are less superstitious. Despite gale warnings one evening last week, Captain Emmanuel Vernikos, 50, decided not to delay the departure of the Heraklion, his 8,900-ton auto-and-passenger ferry on its scheduled thrice-weekly 190-mile crossing from the Cretan city of Canea to Piraeus, Athens' port on the Greek mainland.
Suddenly, in mid-passage the skipper found himself in the midst of 70-m.p.h. gale winds and heavy waves. With horror, crew members reported that the cars and trucks on the...
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