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People
Greek War Of Independence (1821-1829)
Konstandinos Kanaris (1790-1877)
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Konstandinos Kanarios (Kanaris) {Κωνσταντίνος Κανάριος (Κανάρης)} (1790-1877) [Flags] [Georgios Koundouriotis]. A man of short stature and innocent countenance, Konstantinos Kanaris was the most accurate fire-raiser of 1821.
News of the uprising on Hios {Χίος} (March 23rd, 1822) so enraged Sultan Mahmud II (1785-1839) that he sent 46 war ships under the command of Kara Ali Paşa (1778-1822, Ottoman Admiral born in Constantinople {Konstandinoupolis ~ Κωνσταντινούπολις}) to quell it. On March 30th, 1822, Kara Ali Paşa arrived on Hios with a landing force of 7,000 men and gained control of the island. Of the 113,000 residents of Hios, 23,000 were massacred and 47,000 sold as captives in slave markets.
Acting on orders issued by Andreas Miaoulis [People], Admiral of the Fleet, the fire-raisers, Kanaris and Pipinos {Πιπίνος}, approached the Ottoman fleet on the moonless night of June 6th, 1822. Pipinos attached his incendiary boat to the fleet's second ship but did not secure it well enough and the Ottomans managed to separate the two vessels when it caught fire, so the incendiary boat was wasted.
With skilful manoevering by his helmsman Theofanopoulos {Θεοφανόπουλος}, Kanaris approached the flag ship and attached his incendiary boat to her prow. When he had set a torch to his "fire-cracker", he quickly got out of the way. The flag ship exploded as soon as the fire reached her powder store. Kara Ali Paşa just managed to jump into a lifeboat but was struck by a flaming beam and killed.
So the Ottoman armada did not attack Psara {Ψαρά} and Samos [Images], but headed straight for the Dardanelles {Dardanellia ~ Δαρδανέλλια}. When it decided to re-emerge into the Aegean Sea {Egeon Pelagos ~ Αιγαίον Πέλαγος}, Kanaris burnt the second ship in the fleet too, near Tenedos {Τένεδος}.
After liberation, during the reigns of King Otto I [People] and Georgios I [People], Kanaris reached the highest ranks of the navy. In 1863 he was a member of the tripartite delegation that went to Copenhagen to offer the throne of Greece to King Georgios I.
Kanaris lived in Kipseli {Κυψέλη} in Athens [Place Names] but there is now a block of flats on the site where his house was. A marble plaque on the building serves as a reminder that Kanaris' house once stood on the site. Kanaris had also built a private chapel, Saints Apostles {Agii Apostoli ~ Άγιοι Απόστολοι}, on Zakinthou {Ζακύνθου} street. He was buried in the 1st Cemetary of Athens, beside the church of Saint Lazaros {Agios Lazaros ~ Άγιος Λάζαρος}.
Konstandinos Kanarios (Kanaris) (1790-1877)
04-23-2004