Captain Giannis Zorgias from Faliro has 20.5 years of maritime service. During a hold cleaning operation in America, he narrowly escaped certain death due to fumes in the cargo hold. He was hospitalized at a port hospital, while four other crew members did not survive.
“I first boarded as a junior sailor in February 1961 on a coal ship, which was later converted into a bulk carrier. I went to Rijeka, in what was then Yugoslavia – now Croatia. We loaded coal for America and then Japan. My salary was 9.5 British pounds a month, while the captain earned 180 pounds. These were tough times with high unemployment in Greece, and that’s why I turned to the sea,” Captain Giannis shares, among other stories.
Produced and presented by Antonis Karagiannakis