Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
In the course of several days Dimitraki traveled by horse over the Pindus Mountains to Ioaninna,(49) a major city south of Kastoria that had been ceded to the Kingdom of Greece from Albania at the end of the Second Balkan War. It had been the seat of the Turkish Pasha, head of the Ottoman occupation government in Epirus and the Kastoria region of Macedonia. In Ioaninna Dimitraki obtained the papers necessary for his emigration. Within a day or two after he returned to his village, he set off on his life adventure with other young men who were going to America.(50) He was not to return to Macedonia for fifty-two years.
Dimitraki journeyed by mule to the railhead in Kosani and from there by train to Athens and the port of Piraeus. With a ten dollar gold piece in his pocket, courage, and his village friends, he boarded a ship, the Vasilefs Constantinos (King Constantine), bound not for Egypt, but for the United States.
The Vasilefs Constantinos was a new ship built for the National Greek Line in 1915 in Birkenhead, England.(51) Four hundred and seventy feet long, it accommodated 2310 passengers: 60 in First, 450 in Second, and 1800 in Third (Steerage) Class. Although the ship was new, it was hardly a luxury liner, especially for the souls in third class.
Third class passengers disembarked at Ellis Island. Dimitraki was among these. His companions included twenty-seven men and women from the Kastoria region. Of these, five were from his village: Evaggelos Petsalnikos, Andreas Zanidis, Mihail Djadikas, Calliopi Rizou and Pantelis Samaras.
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