Thanks for your posts on this issue, and sorry to raise an old thread from the dead…

Davis, I’m interested in talking with you further about Imperial Airways and their Short Kent flying boat service from Anthens to Alexandria via Mirabella Bay on Crete. I tried to send a private message, but that feature doesn’t seem to work, sadly. My own grandfather flew on the Imperial Airways service from Croydon to Moshi, Tanganyika. I’ve been able to determine it was in October, 1936, leaving Croydon on the 13th (aboard HP.42 Heracles) for Paris, then taking the train to Brindisi, where he would have presumably boarded Short Kent ‘Satyrus’, which then flew to Athens, and from there to Alexandria via Mirabella. From there he flew aboard the HP.42 Hengist to Entebbe (via a number of stops), where he then picked up an Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 named Astraea. 

Based upon what I’ve read, they didn’t typically overnight in Mirabella by 1936, although I may be wrong. I have found a number of contemporary newspaper articles about the Scipio’s accident, including one describing an incident in the same plane at Mirabella in 1931 which had a less traumatic conclusion (obviously). Interestingly, the Greek civil war in 1935 caused all sorts of mayhem for Imperial Airways and their operations on Crete, as that’s where the rebel faction chose to hole up!

Oh, and the clock you referred to as having been salvaged from Scipio was likely one removed from the bulkhead in the passenger cabin… They had a large on there for passengers, along with other instruments, such as an altimeter and ASI. There’s a wonderful photograph of the bulkhead in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. I’ve included it here for you. In any event, I’d love to chat! 

Cheers,
              Richard Mallory Allnutt