A Tale of Two Boats and the Cruel Turks

Aircraft of the allies bombed boats in the bay of Pigadia on two occasions. A son of the Litos family from Messohori was killed in their caïque. It so happened that a caïque in the bay belonged to Captain Stelios and Kostas Farmakidis, at that time called ‘San Giorgio’ but renamed ‘Diafani’ after the war. In the boat were Giannis Vassilarakis, Tharapos and their little dog ‘Kotsos’. In the bombing the little dog was killed, but not Tharapos who was right beside him! Later, Nikolas Protopapas, known as Nikolas the Lame, Nikolis Fundis and Tharapos left by Captain Stelios Farmakidis’ boat.

The ‘Diafani’ was in Simi during the operations in 1943 and Nikolas the Lame was the captain. The English had requisitioned her and despatched her from Simi to Cyprus via Turkey. Nikolis Fundis and Tharapos, who were young and healthy, enlisted in the Greek Navy of the Middle East, but Nikolas the Lame could not because of his disability.

I remember when we arrived in Egypt, there was a Greek newspaper that carried news about the war and we soldiers read it sometimes. In this publication was written ‘The appointed captain is Nikolas Protopapas who succeeded in escaping from Karpathos through enemy submarines and aircraft in the pathetic caïque.’

The other caïque of Olympos/Diafani at the time was the Olga, owned by Georgios K. Protopapas. The Italians initially requisitioned her to carry food to the Italian troops in Tristomo and the Germans later did the same.

Nikolas A. Protopapas’ disability resulted from hideous torture under extreme conditions. At the beginning of the twentieth century, during the last years of the Turkish occupation, he was still a child and worked in a local caïque involved in smuggling contraband. The Turkish authorities saw the boat and pursued it. The captain and crew fled the boat and hid on land. But Nikolas was unable to escape. The Turks hung the child upside down, hanging from his feet, and beat him. But he did not tell them what they wanted and, in the night, while they were not keeping watch, the young boy, with the courage that desperation creates, escaped, fell into the cold sea (it was winter!) and swam from Saria to the coast of Karpathos. As a result of this terrible torture, he limped for the rest of his life and was known as Captain ‘Nikolas o Koutsos’, Nikolas the Lame.

I heard this story from his wife Ernia - Manolis Makris