Reports from the crew members
Yassan Behzad
(Iranian Officer, nowadays living in Los Angeles – USA)
Crew member: Yassan Behzad
Task: Officer
Liner: Raffaello
Event: year 1978-79, during the time serviced in Bushehr in Iran
“I used to live on board Raffaello at port of Bousheher for almost two years 1978-79. At the termination of Imperial regime by Islamic revolution the ship was looted and heavily damaged by the locals and since it’s water distilling plants was out of service it become inhabitant and rats took over the ship. At the brake of the war with the Iraq Raffaello was considered a land mark for bombing the Bousheher Port by the Iraqis so it was decided to be towed to the 1000 meter off shore and anchored with couple of navy sailors as guards. On one of the morning during the first year of Iran /Iraq war it was strike by an Iraqi torpedo and sank to the bottom of Persian Golf were it was further looted by local divers for art affect and salvage parts. It was the greatest place as I ever spend two years of my life and I still hold my cabin room key in my key chain (since I never checked out)”.