Within the facilities of the Thessaloniki Port Authority, in the commercial section where mainly passenger ships and cruise ships are docked, the destroyer “Arrow” was towed, where it is expected that a further inspection of the ship will be carried out and further actions will be decided.

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It is a ship built in Boston, USA and named USS “CHARRETTE” DD 581, launched on June 3, 1942 and served for 32 years in the Greek Navy in missions and exercises. It is a ship with a rich history since, in addition to its service in the Greek Navy, it is also a veteran of the 2nd World War as it was a combat ship that fought in the US naval operations in the Pacific Ocean. In these US Navy operations against the Japanese in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the then USS “CHARRETTE” DD 581 acted as an aircraft carrier support ship, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft convoy protection ship while sinking a Japanese submarine as well as another Japanese ship.

He was awarded thirteen battle crosses as well as other decorations during World War II. In 1958 the ship was granted to the then Royal Hellenic Navy after being modernized at the Long Beach shipyards in California along with three of the same type, a grant made as part of US-Greece mutual aid. The ship built from 3,050 tons of steel across the distant Pacific Ocean was an important ship for the PN in the harsh Greek Aegean. It was decommissioned on February 26, 1991 while it was in 1994 when it was designated as the Museum of the Anti-dictatorship Struggle (MAA). Today there are only four ships of the type out of 175 of the type that were built worldwide. The destroyer “Velos” had docked in the eastern part of the beach of Thessaloniki in September 2019 and the reception of citizens had officially started on Saturday, September 14, while to date the number of visitors it has received in Thessaloniki exceeds 250,000.