The Hydra Merchant Marine Academy is today a living historical-naval monument and a tangible expression of our maritime continuity.
In 1749, the school of Agios Vasilios was founded in Hydra in the precincts of the church of the same name, which from about 1800 functioned as the Maritime School of Hydra on the initiative of the island’s Elders, under the name “The Maritime School of Hydra”.
In the pre-revolutionary years, foreign teachers, Italians and Portuguese, taught naval theory, naval art and foreign languages (Italian, French, Spanish) at the Hydra Naval School.
Felice Caserta from Palermo, Sicily, was a seaman and taught at the Hydra School from 1817 to 1821. In 1821 he fought on a Hydra ship for the freedom of the Nation.
The Italian teacher at the School was the doctor of law Iosif Kiappe, who at the beginning of the revolution was the secretary of Anastasios Tasmados and from the middle of 1821 and throughout the revolution, secretary of the community and publisher of “Friend of the Law” and “Abeille Grecque”.
From 1837, the newly established state sent to Hydra, Syros and Nafplio naval instructors to teach nautical lessons and from 1867, a special teacher for nautical lessons was added to the schools of Hydra, Syros, Spetses, Argostoli and since then they have been designated as Nautical Schools.
In 1927, a private Naval School operated in Hydra under the care of the Association “Union of Sailors of Hydra”.
In 1930, with Law 4511, the Hydra School of Merchant Shipping was founded by the state, which since 1979 with PG 9/8-1-79 belongs to the Higher Technical and Vocational Education level.
Since 1930, the School has been housed in the current building that belonged to the Hydra shipwrights Anastasios Tsamados and Athanasios Koulouras and has been granted to the State exclusively for the operation of the School. This building was built between 1780 and 1810.
During the years of the German-Italian occupation, the building had been ordered by the Italians for the installation of their headquarters (comandatur) and the School operated in Athens, in the offices of the shipowners’ union and later in Kastella until 1949. On November 1, 1949, the first two classes they “repatriated” to Hydra where the School still operates today.
The first training vessel of the School was the schooner “Agios Georgios” of the shipowner Tsingaris, the second the “Elektra” and the third the “Evgenios Eugenidis”.
Since 1989, the institution of alternating education has been implemented. According to this system, between the 1st and 2nd, 4th and 5th semesters, students travel on commercial ships for 5-6 and 6-7 months respectively, where employees and salaried students apply in practice what they learned in theory at the School. The duration of the course is 4 years and upon completion, the students receive the diploma of the third master.
With a recent law, the Higher Public Schools of the Merchant Marine were abolished and in their place, the Merchant Marine Academies were established according to international standards, which belong to the level of Higher technical and professional education.
