Irini Pappas and her husband Paul Anagnostou are photographed with the captain's wife (right), Irini's father's first cousin during the visit of the SS Gratsos ship. She was one of only two women ever qualified as first mate. At the time the Women's Weekly ran a double page spread featuring her. in Greece on board a ship travelling to or from Ithaca.'George D. Gratsos - Ithaca' printed on the buoy indicates that the ship was part of the Gratsos shipping company. The shipping activities of the Gratsos family from Ithaca began in 1902, when Georgios D. Gratsos (1870–1931) bought the ship Odysseus, in partnership with the Dracoulis family, of which Gratsos' wife was a member. A print of a black and white photograph of a man and two ladies on a ship's deck. A life buoy ring with the words ' George D. Gratsos - Ithaca' is on the rails on the left of the group. irini pappas, ithacan ferries

Prior to the advent of the ferry service Ithacans who wished to travel to the mainland sailed by ship. The 'Angelika', photographed in Ithaca's port harbour of Vathi, transported most of the post WWII Ithacan migrants to the main Greek port of Piraeus to embark for their journey to Australia. Migration from Ithaca to Australia ceased during the second world war years. A second wave commenced in the post war years, particular following the 1953 earthquakes which caused catastrophic damage to the island. Today travel between Ithaca and the mainland is by ferry boats. Ships and ferry boats no longer enter the harbour at Vathi, but rather dock at Piso Aetos. A black and white photograph with a thin white border of a ship steaming out of a harbour with smaller craft in the water. People are standing on the wharf watching the boat depart; behind them are buildings and mountains across the skyline.

Costa and Helen Vlassopoulos (Kopela) on board a ferry in 1962 when they were holidaying in Greece with their daughters Eugenia and Anna. It was Costa's first trip back to Ithaca since he migrated to Melbourne in 1937. Costa was reunited with his parents, Dimitri and Eugenia Vlassopoulos, who had returned to Ithaca in 1958 for their retirement. Up until the 1960s very few Ithacans travelled back to Greece. However, as air travel became more common and affordable travel became more common. Today descendants of early Ithacan immigrants return to the island on a regular basis. Some have restored family homes. A black and white photograph of a lady and a man sitting on the deck of a ferry.