Page 420 - Beholding Liberty!

Nikolaos Apostolis (1770-1827)
NOTABLE AND SHIP OWNER OF PSARA, at just the age of seventeen he had enrolled himself as volunteer in the com- mando fleet of Lambros Katsonis. Already in 1793 he was the owner of a large merchant ship and, by his trips from the Black Sea to Holland, managed to create a large and respectable fortune.
Member of the Society of Friends since 1818 and its ephor for Psara, he served, by unanimous decision of his compatriots, as admiral of the Psara fleet, of which four ships belonged to him. From 1821 until his death in 1827 he participated in a series of naval battles at the islands of East Aegean (e.g. naval battle of Eressos, raiding operations at Chios, Lesvos, Lenmos et al.). He held a leading role in the naval battles of Patras (20 February 1822) and Gerontas (29 August 1824), as well as in the naval campaigns for the reinforcement of the revolution in Macedonia and Euboea. It is primarily to him that we owe the rescue of the military corps at Karystia (25 March 1826).
When in 1827 the British Thomas Alexander Cochran was ap- pointed by the National Assembly of Troezen admiral of the Greek fleet, he invited Nikolaos Apostolis, who was then on Aegina, to assist in the operations in Attica. During his trip to Piraeus he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to return to Aegina, where he finally died on 19 April. The General News- paper of Greece, writes in its issue of Saturday, 23 April 1827: «The night of the 19th of the present month died on Aegina of inflammation of the lungs the revered old in age admiral of Psara Nikolaos Apostolis [...]». It is then not at all accidental that An- astasios Orlandos called him «Nestor of Psara».
420 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
ΙΙΙ.7.4
Report of the admiral of Psara Nikolis Apostolis
to the Supreme Administration, on the topic of the naval struggle of the Psarians in the Aegean
(Psara, 6 September 1823)
Archives of the Greek Regeneration, vol. 11, no 87 [pp. 91-92]
Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE WRITER PRAISES THE PATRIOTISM of his compatriots, the inhabitants of Psara, protesting at the same time about the negligence of the Administration as to their fi- nancial support, as well as about the difficulty in the discussions with the Hydraeans. Then, reference is made to the chasing of the Turkish fleet from the area of Melos to the bay of Chios by the ships of Psara, therefore asking to be sent money for the expenses.