Eryssos was a wonderful, dependable little ship of the Destounis Yannoulatos Line that distinguished itself in the very early days of the 20th century. Between 1902 and 1914 she was the main Cyclades ship, reliable, kalotaxido and with a trustful following. In the early days of the liberation of Ikaria, and especially during the times of the Politeia tis Ikarias, she was the Greek ship visiting the island...
Here is a well known postcard of Eryssos at Piraeus just before World War I.
Eryssos2.jpg
Eryssos was built by Palmers at Jarrow, UK, for the Romanian shipping company Danubio and was launched as Medea M in 1884. She was transferred to the Romanian Railway in 1895 and was used mostly to transfer people in the Danube delta, to and from Soulina.
She had 819 tons, a length of 66 m and a width of 9.8 m. Her service speed has been reported between 11 and 13.6 knots.
Here are her Miramar entries
IDNo: 5608531 Year: 1884
Name: MEDEA D. Launch Date: 4.10.84
Type: Passenger/cargo Date of completion: 11.84
Flag: AUH Keel:
Tons: 819 Link: 1492
DWT: Yard No: 545
Length overall: Ship Design:
LPP: Country of build: GBR
Beam: Builder: Palmers'
Material of build: I Location of yard: Jarrow
Subsequent History:95 MEDEA - 02 ERISSOS - 19 ERISSOS KEFALLINIAS - 20 THYRA - 25 ROUMELI - 31 SAADET
Disposal Data: hulked in Turkey 2q.54You will note that Miramar spells her as Erissos (with an i), but of course they spell Thera with a y!!!!Name Tons Change Main Owner
MEDEA D. 819 1884 Danubio
MEDEA 819 1895 Romanian Railways
ERISSOS 819 1902 Destouni Yannoulatos
ERISSOS KEFALLINIAS 819 1919 Yannoulato Bros
THYRA 819 1920 Embiricos Bros
RUMELI 819 1925 Surekasi
SAADET 819 1931 Tavilzade
In 1902 she was bought by Destounis-Yannoulatos Line and was placed in the Cyclades route. Here is an add for Eryssos' runs to Tenos on August 15, 1904.
Aug 1904.jpg
Here is also a nice photograph of what appears to be Eryssos at Aghios Kyrikos of Ikaria in 1913
Ικαρια 1913-14.JPG
In 1920, Eryssos was sold to Embiricos' Ethniki and became Thera. After the Asian Minor collapse, Embiricos had no use for her (she was 41 years old already) and sold her to the Turks... She is listed as Rumeli from 1925 to 1931. That year, she passed to Tavilzade, transformed to predominantly a freighter and named Saadet. The Tavilzade Line is known to us Greeks mostly as the owner of the famous Kurtulus (Eleu0eria) that came to Piraeus in the middle of the famine and the worst times in World War II, carrying large quantities of food for the starving Athenians (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Kurtulu%C5%9F). Her end was in 1954 at age 70!