Constantine Kanaris

Constantine Kanaris (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Κανάρης; * 1790 in Psara, Greece, † September 14, 1877 in Athens ) was a Greek naval hero and statesman.

Kanaris was first captain of a small merchant ship, but noted at the beginning of the Greek War of Independence now at the service of his country. In the channel of Chios he sprinkled on the night of 18th to June 19th 1822, the Turkish admiral's ship of Kapudan Pasha Kara- Ali by using two Brander in the air and burned on November 9, 1822 battleship in the harbor of Tenedos.

On August 17, 1824, he put in Samos a large Turkish frigate as well as many smaller transport ships on fire. However, his attack on the Egyptian fleet in the port of Alexandria on August 10, 1825 was unsuccessful. In 1827 he represented his native island Psara in the Greek National Assembly (the island, however, was in 1830 in the Treaty of London, no part of the free Greece).

President appointed Kapodistrias Kanaris in May 1828 Commander of Monemvasia and later entrusted him with a squadron of warships. After the assassination of Kapodistrias in October 1831, Kanaris withdrew to the island of Syra, but served again as a ship captain first class.

In October 1848 Kanaris resigned as Navy Minister and President of the Cabinet at the head of a coalition ministry, which held up until December 1849. When in May 1854 the Western powers intervened in Greece, Kanaris took over the Cabinet Mavrokordatos the naval administration, which he led until June 1855.

In January 1862 he King Otto of Greece transferred the formation of a new cabinet. Kanaris laid with his political friends a strictly constitutional program before, but it was not accepted by the court. This rejection was one reason for the subsequent uprising of Navplia, which led to the overthrow of the king. After the departure of Otto in October 1862, Kanaris participated briefly in the provisional government, the so-called triumvirate, where he remained until February 1863. Under the new King George, he entered on March 17, 1864 as Secretary of the Navy to the top of a cabinet, but which broke up again on April 28. The same position he then took a between August 7, 1864, and March 1865.

In June 1877 he was again Minister of Marine and Minister in the coalition ministry. Constantine Kanaris retained the post until his death on 14 September 1877.

Minoides Mynas published 1830 pindarisches praises of the naval hero Kanaris.