The Steamship Company's New "convention" of 1881
The following statement appears in a letter from British Consul William Pryor Binney (Syra), in amongst his Foreign Office correspondence (i.e. consul private reports to Earl Granville, Foreign Secretary in London). The letter is dated 19 May 1881:
British Screw Steamer Truthful of Liverpool Official Number 78740 J.O'Keefe Master, which vessel arrived here from Liverpool on the 15th instant and was delivered to the Hellenic Steam Navigation Company at this Port in pursuance of instructions and a Bill of Sale from her owner Mr. Basilio Papayanni of Liverpool....first of three steamers which the Hellenic Steam Navigation Company are bound to add to their fleet in accordance with the terms of their new Convention with the Hellenic Government.
The second of the three steamers, the Wicklow ("of Glasgow Official Number 60460 William Perfect Lapage Master") arrived in Syros from Cardiff (Wales) on 8 August 1881 .
The Hellenic Steam Navigation Company purchased its third ship of 1881, the British Screw Steamer Raven "of Glasgow Off. No. 60393" on 16 October 1881 .
Though the new 1881 "Convention" appears to have required the company to purchase three steamships, there was in fact a fourth vessel purchased. This was the Screw Steamer Portland "of Liverpool Official Number 76725 Frank Boyce Dobson Master" which arrived from Liverpool in Syros on 12 September 1882 .
The picture which emerges from 1881 - 1882 is that of a still vigorous steamship company in Syros, with four newly added screw steamers providing daily connections and daily post between Hermoupolis and the surrounding Aegean to mainland Greece and beyond. A later letter from Consul Cottrell in 1893 (see below) leads one to the conclusion that ten or more steamships were operating on numerous routes linking Syra with the outside world in the 1880s. Meanwhile the Piraeus (the port of Athens) was annually becoming larger and larger, and competing with Syra all the more.
Read more about this topic: Greek Steamship Company
Famous quotes containing the words company and/or convention:
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