Mastromichalis (Michalis Hatzinikolaou), Shipwright: “If there were no shipwrights, there would be no mankind.”
Mastromichalis, a veritable Odysseus, his story and the story of boatyards, the art and the “birth” of the wooden caique boat.
“They give us money to have our boats broken. Shall I tell you how I feel when the bulldozer comes and crushes them? Tears run down my eyes. Do you know why I feel pain? Because I know how a vessel is made. I take a crooked stick. I pat it, stroke it, stroke it again, listen to it. I work on it, for a year, two years, each and every day. I’m up there all the time. And when the boat is about to leave the boatyard, I feel sick. It takes days for me to speak to another human being. I say to myself, they are taking my child, my joy away from me. It’s like marrying off your little girl and someone comes and takes her away and you think about how you used to rock her as a baby. You don’t make doors. You make something you board and say, take me here, take me there. And it takes you there. If there were no shipwrights, there would be no mankind. Because they bring places together, not Captain Michalis and Captain Giannis. We make them commanders. The Greeks, with a hand-stitched cloth covered with castor oil, reached other corners of the Earth, with no compass, only with God’s help and a sturdy wooden vessel. And we are prepared to forget that?” (source: texts by Margarita Pournara who went to Rhodes and met him in 2015, when Mastromichalis was 90 years old)
PLAYLIST! 1) Na ti tha Pei Ellada (Here’s What Greece Means) (tango) – Panos Visvardis & Renos Talmas, 2) Me tin Ellada Karavokyri (With Greece at the Helm) – Fleury D’Antonakis, 3) Palio Skari (Old Boat) – Elli Paspala, 4) Rodos kai Rodonisi (Rhodes and Rhodonisi) – Eirini Kavakopoulou, 5) Karavi Gyalino (Glass Ship) – Vicky Moscholiou, 6) Ena Karavi (A Boat) – Spyros Lambrou Children’s Choir, 7) Enas Technitis Mastoras (A Master Craftsman) – Nadia Karagianni, Sou Skalisa Kaiki (I Carved You a Caique Wooden Boat) – Yiannis Kalatzis, 9) Varkarola (Boat) – Aliki Vougiouklaki, 10) Sta Koupia (At the Oars) – Giovanna, 11) Ah, Patrida (Ah, Homeland) (Je reviens chez nous) – Nana Mouschouri, 12) Les bateaux de Samos – Melina Merkouri