A First-Class passenger list — Sheet No. 14 of the S.S. Olympia, Greek Line (Liberian registry), date of arrival inspection March 25 / March 27, 1957, port of arrival New York, last foreign port Havana. Carrier code 121. Constantine appears on line 9:
| Line | Family Name | Given Name | Age | Sex | Citizenship | Joining/Visa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | JEANNOPOULOS | Constantine | 40 | M | U.S.A. | — |
The page lists fourteen US-citizen first-class passengers travelling together — including the Brettschneider, Brustein, Jackson, Jacobson, Jacovitz, Joahna, Johnson, Johansson, Kahn, Kaplan, Kasher, Kunitz, and Lacey families, with Constantine in the middle of the manifest.
Why Constantine was in Havana in March 1957
Constantine had been in the Caribbean — most likely on a professional or family visit to the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic was already a regular destination in his life by 1957: his sister Penny (Marie Helen) had married into the Dominican Medina family; he and Sophie were professionally and personally tied to the country through Sophie’s late-life zoology consulting work (the 1960 biographical statement records her work at the University of Santo Domingo).
The Greek Line’s SS Olympia operated regular Mediterranean and Caribbean cruise itineraries from New York via Havana and other Caribbean ports. Cuba in March 1957 was still the Batista-era tourist destination it had been throughout the 1950s — Castro’s revolution would not bring the regime down until January 1, 1959, two years after this voyage. Pre-revolution Havana was the standard Caribbean stop on routes between New York and the Dominican Republic; Constantine’s Havana embarkation likely represented the return leg of a DR-or-Caribbean trip.
The 1957 voyage as the bridge between two ends of his Caribbean life
Constantine’s documentary record bookends his Caribbean engagement:
- 1925 (the previous generation): Lazaros made a Havana–US reentry as documented on the October 1925 Havana US reentry certificate, suggesting a Greek-emigrant US-reentry pattern from Havana in the 1920s that Constantine knew from his own childhood.
- 1957 (this manifest): Constantine himself returns to New York via Havana — at age 40, mid-career as an orthopedic surgeon, with board certification six years behind him and NYU faculty appointments ahead.
- 1980 (the final chapter): Constantine dies in Santo Domingo on November 8, 1980. The Caribbean had become his retirement home.
This 1957 voyage sits at the midpoint of his Caribbean relationship — the time when his sister was establishing the family’s permanent Dominican presence and Constantine was making routine consulting/visit trips that would continue for the next two decades. The Dominican death certificate of 1980 reflects the same geographic orbit that this manifest captured 23 years earlier.
About the SS Olympia
The SS Olympia was built in 1953 by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow for the Greek Line — a 23,000-ton transatlantic liner carrying 1,400 passengers across three classes. From the early 1950s through the late 1960s she ran the Greek Line’s flagship New York–Mediterranean route, with seasonal Caribbean cruise diversions in winter and spring. Her First-Class accommodations served the Greek-American diaspora and the upper-class Caribbean cruise market. Constantine’s first-class listing places him among the relatively well-off professionals returning from Caribbean travel — a station consistent with his mid-career NYU orthopedic-surgeon position.
