User:Psefth/Γιώργος Ανεμογιάννης (αγωνιστής 1821)

George Anemogiannis (Greek: Γιώργος Ανεμογιάννης), also known as George of Paxos (Paxoi, 1798 - Nafpaktos, 1821), was a hero and a martyr of the Greek revolution of 1821, one of the earliest fireship captains of the Greek fleet.

Biography
George Anemogiannis was born in 1798 at the island of Paxos, which like the other Ionian Islands,  escaped the Ottoman occupation. This did not matter at all to him, or to thousand other people from the Ionian Islands,  and he took active part in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottomans. When the Revolution begun, he was a sailor on the merchant ship "Οι Σύμμαχοι" ("The Allies") from Spetses, owned by Bouboulina Laskarina and captain Nikola Orloff.

In the gulf of Corinth
Spetses is the first of the islands to revolt, April 3, 1821 The rebels besieged the castle of Patras. The supplies and reinforcements for the Turks of Patras were provided out by the Ottoman  fleet, with its main base in Nafpaktos. At the beginning of May, 6 ships from Spetses with captain Nikolaos Botasis and six ships from Hydra, headed by Dimitris Miaoulis ( son of Admiral Andreas Miaoulis Vokos) sailed for Patras. On the way they came across a small Turkish frigate, which was going after nine small sailing ships.The small greek fleet, in turn, began to pursue the frigate, which signaled the approach of the Greek fleet.The Turkish fleet - a corvette, three boats and a schooner immediately left for their refuge in Nafpaktos. Leaving the Gulf of Patras and passing between the fortresses of Rio Antirrio, the Ottomans considered they were safe. The distance between the forts was 1 nautical mile and all the passing ships were between the crossfire of the forts. but, as the French admiral and historian Jurien de la Graviere writes with admiration "These little Dardanelles did not stop the greek sailors; they attacked and harassed the sailing ships that seeked refuge at the fortress of Nafpaktos " Given the fact that the activities of the Turkish fleet made the siege of Patras more complicated, the joint council of land captains and sea captains decided the attack of the fortress of Antirrio, so as to cut off the Turks in the Gulf of Corinth. Diamantis Hormovas, with the sword in his hand, led the attack and was among those who climbed the wall. But Hormovas was killed and the attack was repulsed.

After this failure, and after receiving information that Dimitrios Papanikolis set an Ottoman frigate on fire with an artillery in Eressos, the captains decided to try to also set fire to the Turkish ships in their refugee in Nafpaktos.

George Anemogiannis from Paxoi
Unlike the Greek fleet in Lesvos, no one here had any experience in the construction or use of artillery. The work for the conversion of a small sailboat from Galaxidi was undertaken by Myrgialis, a cobbler on the ship of Captain Botasis. The arsenal was filled more with firewood, rather than with gunpowder and resin. Apart from that, there wαs noone willing to carry out the arsenal. Apart from George, noone else is reported to had voluntered, When asked what he wanted in return, he replied that he did not want anything for now,but if God was to grant him some good luck, to give him 10 talira to gift his fiancée.

At dawn of June 10, 1821, the fire brigade set sail, towing the boat of its rescuers, led by Myrgialis. In the distance followed the brig "Lykourgos". Seeing them, the Turks started firing from the castle on the hill, from the ramparts at the entrance of the port and the ships of the fleet. Myrgialis considered that it was not possible to get closer to the entrance of the port. He lit the fire and ordered George to get in the boat but he denied.George sailed the burning ship to the entrance of the port. when Myrgialis cried "George you will be lost, jump into the sea", he answered: "Brothers, do you not ask for freedom? Let me be the first to be lost for it"

Standing on the deck was not possible anymore so he hangs on the stern from where he rules the ship. But the flame also reaches him there. George falls into the water, trying with his hands to turn the rudder and does not pay attention to the shrapnel. When he was no longer able to remain in the flames and smoke, he left the rudder and like the good swimmer he was, he escaped from the Turkish boats that surrounded him. Eventually he was caught and brought to the deck of the frigate. There the Turks, "roasted him on a spit like a lamb, in the face of the Greek fleet" then they hung his burned body at the castle for several days as a "as banner of their barbarity."

Memory
D. Fotiadis places George from Paxos next to the martyr of the Greek Revolution, Athanasios Diakos. He also believes that he must be mentioned along with the brother of Aeschylus, Cynaegirus, who tried to hold the Persian ships with his bare hands, after the battle of Marathon. A monument to George was erected at the place where he martyred, in the Venetian bastion at the entrance of the port of Nafpaktos and in his homeland on the island of Paxos.

Also see

 * Paxi
 * Άγιος Γάιος (Παξοί)

Additional bibliography
 ∙ Taki Papanikolaou, "Georgios Anemogiannis-Paxinos, Next to the " publication of the newspaper "Empros Nafpaktos"July 30, 2021. (Τάκη Παπανικολάου, «Γεώργιος Ανεμογιάννης-Παξινός, Επέκεινα του Χρέους», δημοσίευση εφημερίδας "Εμπρός Ναυπάκτου" 30 Ιουλίου 2021.)