''Athena'' was a 50 m long passenger steamship built in 1893 at the Syros (later
Neorion
Neorion is one of the oldest Greece, Greek heavy industries, located in Ermoupolis, on the Greek island of Syros. Today, it is one of the few remaining major industrial corporations in what used to be the industrial and commercial center of Gree ...
) Shipyards. It was the first metal steamship built at this shipyard, and it represented an example of the brief growth of Greek shipbuilding in the late 19th century, before its decline in the next decades. The ship was powered by a steam engine built by the Ifaistos machine works in
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...
, the second largest machine builder in the country (after
Basileiades
Basileiades was one of the most historic Greek machine building companies and the largest in its field in the country (as well as one of the most important Greek companies) during the second half of the 19th century. It was founded in Piraeus ...
) at the time; Ifaistos was founded by John McDowall, a Scottish entrepreneur who had worked in Greece and had obtained Greek citizenship, and was the main builder of ship steam engines in Greece. This ship (renamed ''Rafiah'') sank in 1946 in a tragic accident off the Greek island of
Syrna
Syrna ( el, Σύρνα) is a mountain village and a community in the municipal unit of Trikolonoi, western Arcadia, Greece. Syrna is situated on a mountain slope above the right bank of the river Alfeios, at about 800 m elevation. In 2011 Syrna ha ...
that claimed the lives of Jewish refugees.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Athena
Steamships of Greece
Ships built in Greece
1893 ships