. . . which sounds like rymoulká ton syrón, which translates as tugboats of Syros.  Syros is an island in the Cyclades, the archipelago SW of Athens. In fact, it’s THE island group that originally gave us the word archipelago.

I’ve never visited the Cyclades, but now I really want to.  Previously I have traveled from Athens west, then north all the way to Norway.

I’m not positive how to pronounce rymoulká, but the transliteration looks a like like remorqueur or remolcador, the words for tugboat in French and Spanish, respectively.

These tugs have classical names–Orpheus and Kerveros–and both operate for the shipyard, a division of Neorion, an old Greek heavy industry company.

 

 

 

Many thanks to Ben Hall for contacting me with these photos.  For more of Ben’s photography, click here.

For more photos of Syros, click here. And more Greek tugs, here.  For more tugs from the Mediterranean, click here.