Greek Photo Book, Album, Battleship Georgios Averof, Greece, Balkan Wars

Description

BATTLE SHIP GEORGIOS AVEROF

by

ELENI GARDIKA-KATSIADAKI and GIORGOS HARONITIS

 

Published by National Institute of Research and Studies “E. Venizelos”

Athens in 2002

1/2000 Copies

Original Soft Cover

72 pages with pictures and explanations

27cm x 23cm

First Edition

 

Ten years after the Greek-Turkish War of 1897, the Hellenic Navy had a limited force of antiquated torpedoes and three French warships built in 1889. The urgent need for a reliable fleet resulted in the reinforcement of the fleet – at the end of 1908 – with four new English and four German destroyers. The Battleship Georgios Averof, ´the glory of the Greek Navy, was to be added to the Greek fleet.

In 1908 at the Orlando Shipyards in Livorno, Italy, where at that time a Battleship was being manufactured and was to be used by the Italian Navy. It had preceded the demolition of two other armored cruisers – Pisa type. For this reason, the Italians decided to sell it. The Brazilians were first interested, who shortly afterwards canceled the order due to cuts. The government of Mavromichalis then addressed the Orlando Shipyards to buy the ship, but the Ottomans were also interested. The immediate advance of 1/3 of the total value of the ship enabled the acquisition of the battleship from Greece. This amount came from George Averof’s (Greek businessman and philanthropist) will and amounted to 8,000,000 golden drachmas, while the remaining 15,650,000 drachmas were covered by the National Fleet Fund, an amount that was accumulated from fundraisers by Greeks from all over the world. The government spent a total of 23,650,000 gold drachmas for the Battleship.