The help of Hydra was important in the national liberation struggle of 1821. The Revolution finds Hydra possessing an untold wealth of gold coins of the time, the result mainly of its successful involvement in the wheat trade during the Napoleonic wars.
Its fleet numbered 186 small and large ships with a total capacity of 27,736 tons, i.e. it was twice that of Spetses which had 64 ships with a total of 15,907 tons, while Psara had 35-40 ships and Kasos 15. At the same time the crews had acquired a large war experience due to clashes with Algerian pirates and so Ibrahim justly called Hydra “Little England”.
Since 1820 the provosts of Hydra had been initiated by the Friendly Society for the coming Revolution. In a meeting of members of the Filiki Etairia with Papaflessa at the end of 1820 in Hydra, the existence of two tendencies in the ranks of the local Philiki was established. On the one hand there was the faction of those Philiki with the main exponents of Antonis Oikonomou, Th. Gikas and others. who declared themselves ready for the rebellion and on the other hand the conservative faction of the island’s powerful governors (Kountouriotis etc.) who treated with suspicion the enthusiastic declarations of Papaflessas and were troubled by the power of the Ottoman fleet.
When the Revolution was announced in the Peloponnese, on March 24, 1821, the Hydraians and the Speciotes were informed by letter from the nobles of the Peloponnese, that the Revolution began earlier because the secret had been betrayed by “Turcolators” and they are asking for their help in naval blockade of the enemy .
The Spetsians raised the flag of the Revolution on 26 March, but the Hydraians seemed reluctant to revolt at the same time as the Peloponnesian Revolution broke out, remembering the disasters they had suffered in the previous failed revolt of 1770 and considering the enemy’s military superiority. They finally declared the revolution on April 14, 1821, by Captain Antonios Oikonomou and the People who relaxed the reservations of Prokriton.
According to Antonio Lignos who published the historical record of Hydra, the people of Hydra revolted on Sunday 27 March and deposed the representative of the Ottoman authorities Nikolaos Kokovila, with Antonio Oikonomou taking over the revolutionary administration. On March 31 the prefects recognized the Economos and gave him authority to mobilize the required naval and infantry forces. On April 14, the provosts printed a special accompanying document for the ships that sailed from the island for expeditionary operations, while on April 15, after the necessary preparations were made, the Revolution was officially declared by all.
This form, in Greek and Italian, was also a written revolutionary declaration that bore the title “Passport of the Greek Battleships”. It had blanks for the name of the captain, the ship, the number of guns and the date, which were filled in as appropriate. One such document issued for Giakoumakis Tombazis was published by Omiridis Skylitsis:
“IN THE NAME OF GOD ALMIGHTY, the Greek Nation, burdened to groan under the cruel yoke under which it has been shamefully depressed for about four centuries, rushes with a general and unanimous impulse to arms to crush the heavy chains under which the barbaric Mohammedans have subjected it …
We, the superiors, who constitute the administration of this Island, allow Captain Giakoumakis Toumbazin of the ship Themistocles, which has sixteen cannons and other weapons of war under the Greek flag, to sail after this ship, wherever he may deem useful and necessary to the public struggle, and to be active against the Ottoman forces by land and sea in all that is permissible in a lawful war, until the freedom and independence of the Greek Nation is restored by consolidation … April 16, 1821″.
During the Ottoman Empire, the Hydra crews were called “Soulutzalides”, while the Speciotian crews were called “Tzamutzalides”. And the Hydra crews and the Spetsio crews were much sought after even by the Ottoman commanders, as well as by Kara-Ali. But in general the Hydrians, like other islanders, were forcibly enlisted in the Ottoman fleet.
Tsamados mentions an incident in September 1822, where when a Turkish flagship ran aground on an islet of the Argolis, hydra sailors who served on it by force, managed to detach the ship and as their reward, were set free.
Hydra, together with Spetses and Psara, played a decisive role in the Revolution of 1821, disposing of their merchant and war fleet, fighters and money, at the service of the Revolutionary Struggle.
Marines such as the Admiral of the Trinesian fleet Andreas Miaoulis, Captain Antonios Economou, the admirals Iakovos and Manolis Tombazis, Anastasios Tsamados, G. Shaktouris, G. Sahinis, Antonis Kriezis, the Vokoi together with the arsonists Ι. Matrozo, Andrea Pipino and Vatikioti, played a very important role in the Revolution of 1821.
The Hydra fleet, together with the Spetses and Psara fleets, dominated the sea during the seven-year struggle, thus contributing decisively to the liberation of Greece, sacrificing human lives, ships and money and highlighting leaders and fighters.
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