Mentor (brig)

36°13′19″N 23°04′56″E

List of transportation of the Elgin Marbles. The Mentor made three such journeys in 1802.

The Mentor was a brig bought by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, in order to transport antiquities from Athens.^[1] The cargo included a significant number of sculptures from the Parthenon.^[2][3][4]

Cargo

List of Elgin Marbles on the Mentor brig

Commanded by Captain William Eglen, it left Piraeus on 18 September 1802 with seventeen cases full of antiquities, including:^[1][3][5]

• 14 pieces of the Parthenon Frieze
• 4 pieces of the frieze of the temple known as Athena Nike on the Acropolis
• a marble throne

Sinking

Diagram of the sinking

The ship sailed a longer route than to pick up additional cargo. Having spent the night at Cape Matapan, the ship departed during strong easterly winds, and aimed to anchor at Kythira, but the bad weather meant it could not dock at the small port of Avlemonas and it swung onto the rocks.^[6] The crew and passengers were saved by a nearby boat, but the Mentor and its cargo sank to a depth of 23 meters.^[6] In the two years following the shipwreck, with the help of local divers, most of the antiquities were recovered.^[3]

Recovery attempts

Nautical diagram of the area

Between 2011 and 2016, divers organized by the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities uncovered some of the sunken antiquities.^[7][6]

References

1. Hitchens, C.; Browning, R.; Binns, G. (1997). The Elgin Marbles: Should They be Returned to Greece?. Verso. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-85984-220-1. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
2. Leontsinis, George. "The Wreck of the Mentor on the Coast of the Island of Kythera and the Operation to Retrieve, Salvage, and Transport the Parthenon Sculptures to London (1802–1805)". Arts Books, Athens.
3. Titi, Catharine (2023). The Parthenon Marbles and International Law. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6. ISBN 978-3-031-26356-9. S2CID 258846977.
4. Vardas, George (13 May 2022). "From The Depths Of Despair: Lord Elgin And The Parthenon Sculptures". Greek City Times. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
5. Smith, A. H. “Lord Elgin and His Collection.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 36, 1916, pp. 163–372. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/625773. Accessed 4 October 2022.
6. Bohstrom, Philippe (2 November 2016). "Diving Archaeologists Find Treasures in Sunken Ship Carrying the Parthenon Marbles to Britain". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 4 October 2022. Favorable winds brought the ship to Cape Matapan, the southernmost point of mainland Greece. Then a strong easterly wind developed, forcing it to spend the night there. Already in Piraeus, as they were loading the cargo, the captain, William Eglen, had became [sic] embroiled in a heated argument with Lord Elgin's secretary because he thought the crates were too heavy for the Mentor. Eglen turned out to be right. Hoping to save the ship, he made for anchorage on the nearby island of Kythera. He almost made it. In the afternoon of the same day Mentor reached the small port of Avlemonas on Kythera but the weather was too bad for the ship to dock. The sailors tried moor the ship with two anchors off the port, but the anchors failed to hold the ship in the heaving sea. It swung onto the rocks, crashed and quickly sank to a depth of 23 meters. All the passengers and crew were rescued by the vessel Anikitos.
7. Tourtas, Alexandros (1 January 2014). "Excavations on the Mentor Shipwreck". The Newsletter of the Nautical Archaeological Society. Summer 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2022.