Naufrágio Do Porto

The Greek cargo ship Eleni Stathatos, built in 1919, sank on 28 October 1929. The story goes that the captain deliberately drove the ship onto the rocks at the south of the island and that, with two holes in the bow, the ship ran aground in Porto de Santo Antônio. The freighter was carrying coal and railway material for a railroad in Argentina. Abandoned by its crew, it was bought at auction by the government of Pernambuco for 50 contos de réis to become a pier, a project that was never carried out, and the hull finished going under in 1946.

The site's second ship, the Greek Maria Stathatos, caught fire in the port on 9 June 1937 while carrying coal. The crew abandoned ship and, at night, transferred to the German ship Westfalen, while the hull burned until it sank next to the stern of the Eleni.

Although broken up, the remains of the Eleni keep their main structures in sequence, from bow to rudder, and six axles and train wheels from the cargo are still in view. The wreck is teeming with marine life. The bow lies beneath the isolated danger buoy at the harbour exit, and care is needed there because of boats coming in and out. In Fernando de Noronha, diving conditions tend to be at their calmest and most predictable from March to July.