"I once used to work as an engineer in a trader braccera of 150 tones. It was called "Saint Spyridon" and belonged to Dimitris Mpinotsis. It had a Greek "Axel" engine with power of 120 hp and we used to route Rhodes - Symi - Piraeus with eight miles per hour. It was a real wooden sea boat, thirty metres long".

All kinds of keels

Nicholas Mostratos, the shipwright from Symi, nostalgically describes the legendary "braccera", on which he used to cross the Aegean sea within decades, against the enormous waves. "It was able to travel even with a ten beaufort wind, not at all like today's plastic tubs, which can get in danger even with five beaufort. The engine's propeller was in total symmetry with the boat's water line and it was able to travel very easily. If those two things didn't match, the boat was useless even with an engine power of 200 hp".

In the old times, boats were made at the shipyard which was at the centre of the seashore, where today the village's square is. The "hoppers" were the first boats that the carpenters made in Symi and became popular very easily.They were super fast and used to carry the mail, which also served the Turks.

Symi's fishing boat was also very popular; it was called "almost four", because its length was 20cm less than 4 metres. The fishermen threw a small net of 13 fathoms, which used to trap the fish in the bottom of the sea. They used to drop a white stone of 3-5 kilos as well, which agitated the water and forced the fish to be caged in the net.

The first jigsaw

When Nicholas Mostratos brought the cutting wood machine in the island, there was not the kind of electricity needed and he was obliged to also bring a diesel engine to make it work. There was electricity in Symi since 1928, but the current was direct and not alternating. But even if the current was appropriate, its small power wouldn't be enough for the energy-consuming machine.

Three men from Symi had made a small electric company in the island and supplied the houses with up to 40 watts for each one of those. They used a "Bolider" generator with two engines, with a power of 30 hp each. But still, the power was not enough for the 36.000 people living at the overpopulated bay around the port. Now that Public Electricity Company has reached Symi, there is no problem with electricity, but there is the problem of the small number of consumers. In 1958 the island was bustling, while today it is inhabited by fifteen times less people than it used to be.

Nicholas Mostratos who is today retired, makes small boats for his eight grandchildren, one for each one of them. It's not about some cheap imitations, but real small boats, not at all different to the big ones. As soon as the armour is finished, he paints them with some flaxseed oil and some turpentine and finally he adds the masts and the sails.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

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The small shipyard that is left in Symi's port.

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