Thank you very much Roi Baudoin. Wonderful addition!
Atreus was another Epirotiki ship that was active around the same time. It looked very similar to Aegeus although it was significantly bigger.
Atreus was built in Denmark by DFDSas the Aarlborghus in 1914. DFDS is well known Danish shipping company (Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab, literally The United Steamship Company). Aarlborghus was placed on the route Copenhagen to Aalborg (on the Jutland peninsula) in 1915. In 1936 she was renamed Frederikhavn and was placed appropriately on the route Denmark-Norway, serving Copenhagen-Frederikshavn (NE of Aarlborg almost at the tip of the Jutland peninsula, opposite Gotenborg of Sweden)-Oslo (see a picture of Atreus as Frederikhavn in http://www.faergelejet.dk/faerge.php?id=355&n=3).
She was purchased by Epirotiki in 1958. Atreus was listed at 1480 tons in Miramar http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/s...0&search_op=OR, i.e., significantly bigger than Aegeus. Yet, she looked quite similar but not the same as Aegeus.
She was scrapped in 1970
I wonder how often in the 1930s Aegeus met Atreus at the wonderful Oslo harbor! Who said that ships don't have wonderful stories to tell...
Atreus' routes the first summer of 1959 she was in Greece included Piraeus, Patras, Corfou, Brindisi; Piraeus, Kalymnos, Kos, Rhodes; and Piraeus, Herakleion, Rethymnon, Chania.
That same year, Aegeus was running the route Brindisi, Corfu, Preveza, Lefkas (Nydri), Patras, Piraeus. By the summer of 1962, Aegeus had added also the Piraeus, Monemvasia, Neapolis, St. Pelagia route to her schedule, an indication her days were passed...
Both ships served our inter-island passenger shipping during the heroic period of the late 1950s and early 1960s quite well. They were particularly valuable as a less expensive method for tourists to travel from Italy to Greece when Egnatia and Appia were capturing the up-scale market of those days. Indeed, I have met numerous European, and US colleagues and friends of my age who took these ships to Greece when they were students, 50 years ago!
As a small editorial comment though, it is incredible how in 50 years we have gone from the 1000 and 1500 ton vessels serving the Brindisi-Patras route to the mega-vessels of our days...
I am preparing a rather detailed article about Elliniki Aktoploia tou 1908 which will be a surprise to the readers and friends of nautilia.gr. When you read the schedules of the Greek passengers ships in 1908 you will be astonished how we have changed in the last 100 years! Please be on the look-out for this "article" and I hope our leader Ellinis will place it in an appropriate thread.