‘I hope there is some peace in the souls of my mother and father because I am here’

Two dreams, in fact.

‘My mother always said she wanted to come to this island,’ he explained.

‘She talked about it very often but she was not able to do it.’

His mother, Pagona, died in 2021 with that ambition unfulfilled, but her yearning was imbibed by Evan in a most profound manner.

‘She came to me in a dream at the end of last summer and told me she wanted me to be here, on the 50th anniversary, to visit this memorial.’

He indicates the memorial by which we stand, which lists the 17 men and one woman who were lost exactly half a century ago, as the MV Prosperity lost its way in mountainous seas.

Among those listed is the chief engineer, Evan’s father Nicolaos.

At 48, he was the oldest crew member aboard the ill-fated, Cyprus-registered cargo vessel, which was carrying a shipment of timber to Piraeus in Greece.

As a merchant seaman, he spent many weeks at a time away at sea.

‘My mother only said good things about my father,’ Evan said.

‘He gave us a good life but I remember very little. I remember that the phone rang and they told my mother the Prosperity was sunk and the crew were missing. I was only five. My brother Stamatis has clearer memories – he was 10. But I know a great agony had conquered our hearts.’

Nicolaos’ body was returned to the family after 12 days.

Evan estimates that the four occasions when his living father was at home with him probably added up to a maximum of two months.

Standing in the cold, clear sunshine at the beginning of a momentous week, within sight of a stretch of water he had never seen before this year but of which he has been painfully conscious almost all his life, Evan tries to come to terms with the enormity of his emotions.

He arrived in Guernsey on Saturday as a 55-year-old hotel worker from Karystos on the island of Evia, but the visit is stirring memories which have their genesis in the mind of a five-year-old boy.

‘Really it is dreadful to be here,’ he said.

‘I am a little bit nervous and when I came to the memorial for the first time, it was very strong for me. There are so many memories after 50 years. But I hope there is some peace in the souls of my mother and father because I am here.’

Alongside Evan stand his good friends, Maria Samara and Evangelos Gkikas, from Athens.

‘I woke up from my dream and wondered about it,’ said Evan, ‘and when I spoke to Evangelos, he said “OK, we are going”.’

In order to make the most of his visit, Evan began sending emails to people on the island who he found on the internet, hoping that somebody might know what had been planned for the 50th anniversary.

In truth, however, the Prosperity memorial, though attended annually with all due reverence and solemnity, is rarely busy on 17 January.

Instead, partly with the weather in mind, those who perished on the vessel are commemorated on or near 3 September, on which Merchant Navy Day is marked.

In November, however, Evan sent an email to the Rev. Adrian Datta at St Peter’s.

‘He answered after half an hour,’ Evan said.

Their subsequent correspondence resulted in Evan getting more than he bargained for.

‘We were delighted to be able to host them at the rectory and to be able to get to know them better,’ said Adrian. ‘From the beginning, people here have reached out to the families of the deceased and they’ve been a real delight to have here.’

Evan carries evidence of these early attempts to reach out, showing me hand-written letters from John W Diamond dated 27 August 1974 and 20 January 1975, which explain the plans for a memorial and the collection of funds from the people of Guernsey.

In the latter missive, Mr Diamond tells Pagona that a sum of about £130 (worth £1,175 today) is expected go out to each family.

‘We never received any money from the ship’s owner,’ Evan said.

Among the legacies of one tragic night in January 1974 were a host of families bereaved in Greece, Turkey and Nigeria, a row of mainly Muslim graves at Le Foulon, and this recently refurbished memorial, complete with new inscription stone.

A practical legacy was the moving of the shipping lane further west from Guernsey.

A personal legacy, for Evan, has been a trio of Greek visitors paying a pilgrimage to an island with a dark past and finding light in new friendships.

‘I want to give my special thanks to Reverend Datta for making all this happen and I would like to thank all the people of Guernsey and the States of Guernsey for everything they have done – especially for the memorial they made,’ said Evan.